Help wanted but not allowed
Women in the United Kingdom who regret taking the first drug in an abortion pill cocktail can no longer access reversal treatment. Two U.K. doctors began prescribing progesterone dosages to frantic women who contacted pro-life groups for help last year, around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s Pills by Post telemedical abortion program. Pills by Post allows women to receive abortive drugs by mail without ever seeing a medical professional in person. Now, the doctors must stop prescribing abortion pill reversal (APR) treatments while the General Medical Council investigates them based on allegations of endangering women.
The prominent abortion provider MSI Reproductive Choices brought charges against Dr. Dermot Kearney and Dr. Eileen Reilly in January. At the end of April, both doctors received word that they were under investigation and must attend a May 12 hearing. At the hearing, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service allowed them to continue normal practice under certain restrictions during an 18-month investigation. As a gynecologist, Reilly can still prescribe progesterone, but not outside of her practice. Kearney, a cardiologist and emergency room physician, is barred from administering it at all. Both could lose their medical licenses.
In the months between the initial complaint and the hearing, an undercover reporter with the U.K.-based political website Open Democracy posed as a woman who had taken the first abortion drugs and came in contact with Reilly through the Heartbeat International APR network. The article claimed APR put women in danger of serious bleeding—a side effect of the abortive drugs.
