When Elizabeth told her Abortion Pill Reversal story in court recently, she was nervous.
Having no frame of reference, she imagined she’d encounter drama akin to fictionalized courtroom scenes on television or in the movies. While that was not the case when she took the stand in The People of California v. Heartbeat International and RealOptions, the stakes were and are still high.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing Heartbeat, the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S., and its affiliate RealOptions, seeking approximately $20 million in damages and to prohibit Heartbeat and RealOptions from advertising Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) as safe and effective.
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While Bonta is not seeking to ban the provision of APR, rather to stop Heartbeat and RealOptions from making certain statements about it, including from using the term “reverse” to describe it, the prospective fines and quashing of speech about APR could in effect result in blocking women like Elizabeth from learning about APR and the option to try and save their pregnancy.
Bonta’s office has acknowledged that it has received no complaints from women about APR.
The APR protocol is an updated approach to a treatment used since the 1950s to prevent miscarriage, entailing prescribing progesterone to counter mifepristone, the first of two drugs in a chemical abortion. Mifepristone works by blocking progesterone, necessary to sustain pregnancy, in a pregnant woman’s system.
Heartbeat manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN), and RealOptions is a provider with the APRN, a network of nearly 1,500 healthcare professionals, pregnancy centers, and hospitals worldwide that administer the APR protocol.
To date, more than 8,000 lives have been saved thanks to APRN. Among them is Elizabeth and Ben’s daughter Evelyn.
More than 200 womenwho sought help through the APRN signedan open letter in late Junevoicing gratitude forthe care, information, andthe hopethey got from the APRN. More than 40 of the 200-plus women arefrom California. Many of the women sent photos of their children, with children ranging in age from in utero with current pregnancies to adolescence. A few ofthe women who signed the open letter also sent extra letters expressing thankfulness.
The AG’s legal team had objected to the defendants’ inclusion of photos of babies born after theAPR protocol in case materials arguing they were “irrelevant.”
Elizabeth was one of three APR moms to testify in court sharing their personal stories.
She and her family, including two young children, traveled for several hours in late July for her to testify in the APR trial.
Why did she agree to do this?
“I owe my daughter’s life to Abortion Pill Reversal and the pregnancy center that helped me,” Elizabeth said.
She said she owed her marriage to the counseling that she and her husband received from the pregnancy clinic as well.
Elizabeth and Ben’s relationship was rocky when she became pregnant with Evelyn. They were fighting a lot, and she feared being in the position of raising the baby alone.
Conflicted, she went to Planned Parenthood, expecting counseling. That expectation was not met in favor of a focus on abortion, leaving Elizabeth feeling yet more alone.
After more than one visit to the abortion facility she took the first chemical abortion pill, swiftly experiencing regret.
Ben texted her at that moment, telling her if she hadn’t yet taken the abortion pill to get out of there, and they would figure things out together.
She returned home, upset, having tried a couple of times on the way to throw the pill up, unsuccessfully.
Ben and Elizabeth searched the internet for options to undo a chemical abortion.
They found the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, which quickly connected her with an Abortion Pill Reversal provider in her area and Care Net Pregnancy Center of Paradise for pregnancy help.
Elizabeth started the APR protocol, and she was able to successfully reverse her chemical abortion. Daughter Evelyn was born in January 2024.
Elizabeth and Ben returned to the pregnancy help clinic for services, parenting classes, and relationship counseling. They are now married and Evelyn’s little brother Benson was born last fall.
They accept opportunities to speak about Abortion Pill Reversal, whether in Alameda County California superior court for the APR trial, the Walk for Life West Coast, or events for Care Net of Paradise or Heartbeat International, because of the dramatic impact APR and pregnancy help have had on their lives.
Elizabeth recalled for the court her and Ben having to search the internet in that time of panic after taking the abortion pill to find Abortion Pill Reversal.
“And if I can make it a little more accessible through talking about it to someone that needs it,” she said, “and I can make their story into a happy story, and I can help them make a tough decision through sharing my story and information that I learned, the harder way, maybe their decision will have a happy outcome like mine did.”
Elizabeth remarked that it’s common to want to help others avoid the same mistakes one has made.
When she testified in the trial, she also told the court that after taking the chemical abortion pill, she was sad.
“I talked about what it was like to be pregnant, even though I knew I was probably going to end up getting an abortion,” Elizabeth said. “And I told him (the questioning attorney) it was like driving a car that you knew you couldn’t afford to buy.”
“I wanted to be a mom,” Elizabeth said. “I always wanted to, and it was right there. And I just wanted someone to tell me how I could do it and how we could do it and help me knock down the barriers of finances and emotional distress and lack of feeling supported.”
“And that’s why I took the pill,” she said. “Because I didn’t have those things, and it felt like I was closing a chapter I didn’t want to be over.”
“And so,” Elizabeth continued, “it was really, really sad.”
She remarked about when she and Ben called the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline, learning about reversal and getting hope.
“It took my tragedy and made it into a fairy tale,” said Elizabeth. “And I just feel like, if I can do that for anyone else, just through talking about my happy story, I don’t know, it would just be the most wonderful outcome.”
Asked what she would tell another mom in her situation, feeling overwhelmed by unexpected pregnancy, feeling as though there is no other choice but abortion, Elizabeth said that you don’t have to have it all figured out.
“God made it a process of nine, 10 months to prepare for a baby for a reason,” she said.
“You’re not supposed to find out you’re pregnant and immediately know how you’re going to support an entire person you haven’t met yet, and who’s gonna help you, and who’s not gonna help you,” she said. “And you don’t have to have a giant savings fund ready for said person who’s not separate from your body yet.”
“It’s quite a brilliant design, to just trust the process,” Elizabeth continued.
“And when you make the decision to keep your baby, the people around you will quit expressing their doubt to you,” she said. “Because I feel like people sensed my doubt and then they fed on that and were like, yeah, you know, maybe you wouldn’t be a good mom, maybe it’s not a good time.”
As soon as Elizabeth and Ben made it known they were choosing life for their baby and Elizabeth said she was excited, others around them got excited too, she said.
People are fickle, Elizabeth said.
“And if you want your baby, advocate for your baby,” she said, “and the people around you will gather and rejoice.”
“I’ve never met anyone that regretted their children,” Elizabeth said, “no matter who they had them with or when in their life they had them.”
Closing arguments in The People of the State of California v. Heartbeat International & RealOptions are set for September 17 and a ruling is due from the judge within 90 days of that date.
LifeNews Note: Lisa Bourne is Managing Editor of Pregnancy Help News and Content Writer for Heartbeat International. This originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News.
