This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.

This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
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international.
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Canada doctors group breaks silence on “unproven” abortion ‘reversal’ treatment
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Canada’s national society of obstetricians and gynaecologists has issued a statement warning that so-called ‘abortion pill reversal’ treatment is “unproven” and can also cause “serious complications” for patients.

The statement – the first by a Canadian medical association to address this topic – was issued in response to findings from an openDemocracy investigation that reveals how this controversial ‘treatment’ is spreading from the US around the world.

“The claims regarding so-called abortion ‘reversal’ treatments are not based on scientific evidence,” says the statement from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) which says that it “does not support prescribing progesterone to stop a medical abortion”.

Geoffroy Legault-Thivierge, media relations officer for Health Canada added: “‘abortion reversal’ is not a Health Canada-approved indication for progesterone.”

Medical (as opposed to surgical) abortions, which can end pregnancies up to ten weeks, have been available in Canada since 2017. Two drugs (mifepristone, then misoprostol) must be taken within a couple of days of each other.

‘Abortion pill reversal’ (APR) proponents claim that taking high doses of progesterone after the first pill can ‘reverse’ the abortion. But there is no conclusive evidence that the ‘treatment’ works – or that it is safe.

A previous US medical trial into the effectiveness and safety of APR was abruptly cancelled in 2019 after some participants were hospitalised with severe haemorrhaging. The American Medical Association (AMA) has called abortion ‘reversal’ “patently false and unproven”, while the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists describes it as “dangerous to women’s health”.

Until now, no Canadian association had condemned this ‘treatment’, despite evidence that some Canadian doctors are ready and willing to prescribe it – with the help of by a large US Christian right group called Heartbeat International.

“Every hour counts if you've decided to do this,” a British Columbia doctor said in a phone call to an openDemocracy undercover reporter posing as a woman who had taken the first of two pills for a medical abortion.

The doctor said he had provided APR to multiple other women in Canada and that he has delivered at least one baby after he helped to ‘reverse’ a woman’s medical abortion.

Dustin Costescu, an associate professor and family planning specialist with the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said there are risks and patients need to know about them.

“They may go on to miscarry,” Costescu warned, or “They may have a higher rate of emergency or complication by taking [the ‘treatment’] compared to somebody who goes on to complete the abortion on their own.”

‘Poor science’ and ‘experimental therapy’

openDemocracy’s undercover reporter contacted a 24-hour ‘abortion pill reversal’ hotline run by Heartbeat International and said she had started a medical abortion in Montreal, Quebec.

She was then connected via a network of nurses and anti-abortion groups to a family doctor in British Columbia. Doctors in Canada are regulated by province, so it is unusual to be referred to an out-of-province medic.

This doctor sent a prescription for progesterone to a Quebec pharmacy (which was not picked up). When asked why APR isn’t available as an option in clinics that provide medical abortions, the doctor said “it's all to do with the politics.”

“The people that hand out these [medical abortion] pills don't want to admit that women would think badly of taking [them],” he claimed, adding “it's unfair to women not to tell them that they've got the chance to, change their mind.”

Medical experts disagree. Sarah Munro, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of British Columbia, says there is no evidence that ‘abortion pill reversal’ works. “Promoting such claims is poor science,” she said.

“It worries me that clinicians are providing care that doesn't meet any standard of practice in the country without a clear conversation with patients about the fact that this is experimental,” said Costescu. “It brings up a lot of ethical issues.”

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/canada-doctors-group-breaks-silence-on-unproven-abortion-reversal-treatment/