During a speech at the 2024 Heartbeat International Annual Conference, Dr. Dermot Kearney, the physician who was put under investigation due to false allegations from abortion organizations and was ordered to stop prescribing the “abortion pill reversal” protocol in an attempt to save babies’ lives at the request of their mothers, encouraged pro-lifers to stay the course. He also shared the story of a baby he helped to save.
“Never, ever get tired of doing what is right,” he said at the event held in April. “It can be discouraging. There will be opposition. Sometimes you’ll fall and fail, but just get back up and never, ever get tired of doing what is right.”
Kearney was temporarily prohibited from carrying out a treatment known as “abortion pill reversal” by the UK medical authorities. “Abortion pill reversal” consists of administering the naturally occurring pregnancy hormone progesterone in an effort to counteract the effects of the drug mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen. Mifepristone blocks the progesterone in a pregnancy, depriving the growing baby of nutrients and oxygen. If a woman takes mifepristone and regrets her decision, doctors who participate in “abortion pill reversal” may administer progesterone to her in the hopes of saving her baby. Progesterone has been used for decades to prevent miscarriage in at-risk women. If a woman also takes the second abortion pill drug, misoprostol, Kearney claims there is just a one to two percent success rate of halting the child’s death. (Misoprostol causes contractions to expel the body of the preborn child from the uterus.)
Kearney shared the stories of women he helped by prescribing progesterone, including Sarah. Already a mother to one, Sarah considered abortion due to financial fears. Though she was in tears at the abortion appointment, her doctor still gave her the mifepristone and said, “Well, are you going to take it or not?” Sarah took it and then left with misoprostol in hand, but she had regrets. She searched for help online and found the Abortion Pill Rescue Network. A nurse connected her to Kearney, and after he administered progesterone treatments, she was able to deliver a healthy baby boy.
Later, a woman who heard about “abortion pill reversal” from Sarah and was also dealing with abortion pill regret connected with Kearney, and her baby was also saved.
“Sometimes we get these new cases that come to us when there’s no other way, because the women now go to abortion providers to be actively told, ‘If you change your mind—you shouldn’t—but if you do, do not seek abortion reversal,’” Kearney said.
“There was a time in 2020, early 2021, I was getting six calls a week, three some days, weekends especially,” he said. “But now it’s down to two or three a month. With the other providers, it is more or less the same. So, the numbers have dried up largely because of the opposition.”
Kearney previously spoke about the work he has done in a video for the March for Life UK:
For his efforts and perseverance, Heartbeat International awarded Kearney its Servant Leader Award. “There are very few who would tell a team of hotline nurses, ‘Call me anytime day or night because women deserve the right to abortion pill reversal,'” said Christa Brown, Heartbeat International’s Director of Medical Impact of Kearney. “There are very few who would ask a patient, ‘Do you have a way to get to the pharmacy?’ and if not, send a taxi on their own dime. There are very few who would ask the woman, ‘Do you have funds to pay for this prescription?’ and if not, send their dear wife Mary with a credit card to pay for that life-giving progesterone.”
She added, “There are very few who, when their very livelihood and medical licensing and professional reputation are threatened and they’re under investigation and faced with restrictions for months on end, when colleagues turn their backs and all they’ve worked so hard for is at risk, will stand strong and say, ‘I work for the Lord, not man.’”
Editor’s Note, 8/1/24: This article has been updated to reflect that Dr. Kearney did not lose his medical license; it was under threat due to an investigation against him. We regret the error.
