The Daily Signal - ‘A Decision You Can’t Take Back’: Mother Warns Against Colorado Law Prohibiting Abortion Pill Reversal That Saved Daughter’s Life

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Alliance Defending Freedom challenges a law banning abortion pill reversal, which would have prevented Mackenna Greene from saving her baby. When Mackenna Greene took the abortion pill to end the life of her unborn daughter, she immediately knew she had made the wrong choice. Greene said she googled her options and found Chelsea Mynyk, a nurse-midwife at the life-affirming Catholic medical center Bella Health and Wellness in Englewood, Colorado. Mynyk prescribes abortion pill reversal medication to women who regret starting a chemical abortion. "I'm the luckiest girl alive to be looking at this girl's face," Greene said. "And thank goodness that the reversal was successful." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Elizabeth Mitchell, and this is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, October 1st. I'm sitting down with McKenna, a mom in Colorado who chose life for her baby by taking an abortion pill reversal. After finding out she was pregnant and taking the abortion pill, McKenna immediately regretted her decision. She went to nurse practitioner Chelsea Mink, who prescribed her progesterone to counteract the effects of the first abortion pill. But Colorado, where McKinna and Chelsea live, has passed. a law forbidding doctors and nurses from providing women with the abortion pill reversal or even informing them about it. Alliance defending Freedom lawyer Kevin Terrio is representing Chelsea as she challenges

the law in order to continue saving babies like McKenna's. Stay tuned for our conversation after this. Your government is out of control. It's doing things it has no business doing. It spends way too much money. It gets involved in way too many wars. It not only tells you what you can and can't say. It actively censors you.

And the things your government should do, it can't, or worse, won't, do it all. It can't keep your streets clean of crime and filth. It can't keep your neighborhoods safe enough for kids to play outside. It can't even prevent your country from being invaded by millions of illegal immigrants. Why is that? Because your leaders no longer represent you, they represent themselves and their friends. In my new show, The Signal Sit Down, we'll expose how the sausage really gets made in Washington, D.C., with guests who have experience on the inside.

Fingers will be pointed. Names will be named. You ready? McKenna, how did you feel when you first learned that you were pregnant? Heartbroken. In a word, just heartbroken. A lot of emotions came through. It was an unexpected pregnancy, and, you know, that's difficult for anyone to stomach, so. And how did you decide to initially take the abortion pill? Yeah. My partner and I had actually discussed prior. that if we'd ever gotten pregnant again, that we would be entertaining that option. So in a way, I thought I felt really prepared when faced with that decision. And we proceeded together to go ahead and move forward with that chemical abortion. And obviously, that ended up being one of the

worst decisions that we could have made personally. So how did you feel right after taking it? I'll admit that in the days leading up to it, I was not excited. I was second-guessing myself. I found myself trying to convince myself that I was making the right decision. So immediately after taking it, I felt regret. And I had a feeling that that was a very bad decision. And I'd immediately considered, you know, is there any way out of this? And I wanted to look into that.

How did you know that this wasn't the right choice? One of the biggest indicators that I found for myself was me having to convince myself that I was making the right decision. on a, you know, a daily, it was a daily battle with myself telling myself, you're not financially ready. You're not professionally ready to have two children. Your relationship isn't ready. So I was looking at a lot of reasons why this was, you know, the best decision when my heart, you know, it was the one that knew that it wasn't.

How did you find Chelsea Mink, the nurse who prescribed the abortion pill reversal? Yeah. Thank goodness I did. She immediately, you know, I Googled, is there any way out of this abortion pill reversal? And they were actually the ones that popped up immediately on the Google search. So I gave them a ring and they got me connected with Chelsea immediately. She got me started on, you know, the abortion pill reversal treatment. And I consider her, you know, a savior of mine throughout this whole process.

What was your experience with Chelsea like? she is an angel there's really no other way to describe Chelsea she is the most selfless human I've ever met I love that she fights for women that that you know don't have anywhere else to go she is so you know convicted in her faith that she believes that every every woman gets the chance to you know either save their babies or she just wants to provide help and care and and and that's ultimately, you know, just one of the great traits that she has. After choosing to save your baby's life, what was it like to hold her for the first time? Oh, my goodness. It was so moving. It felt so different than my first born. I felt like I had worked,

you know, my whole life to have her. And so that was kind of the thought process there was I'm the luckiest girl alive to be looking at, you know, this girl's face and thank goodness that the reversal was successful. And do you think that other women should have the opportunity that you had to change their minds about the abortion pill and be able to save their baby's life? I absolutely do. I think it is heartbreaking that Colorado law currently is providing the same type of care to women that are just, not just, but the type of women that are, you know, high risk, experiencing miscarriages, and I absolutely believe that the same type of care should be

provided to women that do attempt to get, you know, a chemical abortion. And it's heartbreaking that it's the same pill. It's the same exact drug. And only one group of women are being treated as though, you know, their right to meet and see their babies is not right. And when was your baby born and what's it been like to be her mom since then? Oh my gosh. She's late August as, when she was born 2024, and it's been about a month now. And she's the most perfect thing. I know that every parent says that, but she really, she sleeps great, she eats great. She gives little smiles. She's got such a personality. And sometimes when I look at her, I think of, you know, missing out on all of that. And it hits, it hurts. So again, I'm just so lucky, so blessed to be

able to look into her face every day. Absolutely. Congratulations. That's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. And Kevin, could you tell us a little bit about the Colorado law that Alliance Defending Freedom is challenging? Yes. I mean, this is a law that restricts the ability of medical professionals like Chelsea to save lives. And as McKenna was saying, it singles out those women that have regret, just like McKenna and decide that they don't want to go through with the chemical abortion and doesn't allow them to give, to receive this progesterone, which is, you know, it's a drug that's been used for over 50 years to stop miscarriage. And Chelsea herself has proven that it definitely increases the chances that moms like McKenna

can save their babies. And this can be for either of you, but how does the abortion pill reversal process work? So the first chemical abortion pill, Mithopristone, what it does is it blocks the ability or inhibits the ability of the uterus to use progesterone to keep the baby alive. And so when the, when medical professionals like Chelsea prescribe additional dosages of progesterone, it helps counteract that. And 60 to 65 percent of the time, it can allow the baby to live. so long as the mom goes through the protocol and doesn't take the second part of the chemical abortion process. Why do you think Colorado passed this law prohibiting women from taking the abortion perversal?

It really doesn't make any sense unless you see it from the perspective of this radical abortion lobby that says that we want women to have access to abortion and we don't think they should be able to change their minds, which is really counterintuitive because they also. say that they're pro-choice. So what's really going on, I think, is people like Chelsea are being singled out because they don't tow the line on Colorado's radical pro-abortion agenda. And why does Alliance Defending Freedom argue that nurses like Chelsea should be able to prescribe abortion pill reversal to women like McKenna? Well, the primary reason why this process is so important is because it saves lives. And McKenna and her daughter are a perfect example of But it also is a treatment that medical professionals like Chelsea ought to be able to talk about because it's a viable option. And so when the state of Colorado not only restricts her ability to prescribe it, but says she can't even talk about it, it's violating her constitutional rights.

And of course, everybody, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, should be concerned that religious liberty and freedom of speech and freedom of speech. each are protected. You said the Colorado law is currently on hold for Chelsea. What about other nurses? Right. So the federal district court entered an order putting the law on hold last year with regard to Bella Health, which was the initial plaintiff in this lawsuit. And then when Chelsea was investigated, she intervened and the court extended that hold. It's called a preliminary injunction to Chelsea. So the medical professionals of Bella Health and Chelsea are, are a allowed to talk about and prescribe APR despite this triconian law. And what do you see, what do you hope to see happen with this going forward?

We are cautiously optimistic that the court is going to enter a permanent injunction, putting this law on hold and saying that it violates the rights of Chelsea and her patients like McKenna and also of other nurse practitioners and other medical professionals that use this life-saving procedure to make sure that women who regret their abortions are given a second chance. And how common is the abortion pill reversal? I don't know the answer to that question. I think it's something that well over 5,000 or 6,000 people and women have used it since the process became put in place. But abortion pill rescue network, which is Heartbeat's ministry, oversees that. And of course, that's

just counts the ones that they know of. So I would say probably close to 10,000 expectant moms have used it to help save their babies. And McKenna, now that you have your beautiful daughter, what is your advice to other moms and other women in situations like yourself in these unplanned pregnancies trying to decide what they should do? Absolutely. You know, if you are having to convince yourself that you are making the right decision, if you're having to, you know, justify that and really, you know, fight yourself that you're making the right choice here. It's a life-changing decision. Either way, you go. And I can say that, you know, there's certainly, you know, women that do go through abortions and they do regret it. And there's also, you know, women that

further, you know, regret, you know, every time they see a baby in a store. That's, you know, something that they'll always think of is, oh, that would be about how old, you know, the child that I could have had is. So in short, if you're having to convince yourself that you're making the right decision, you're just not. And it's a decision that you can't ever take back. Absolutely. Thank you so much to both of you. Thank you. Thanks for having us to listen. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Daily Signal podcast interview edition. Tune in later today at 5 p.m. to our top news, where we break down the headlines of the day. Also, be sure to leave us a five-star rating and review.

We read all of your feedback. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful rest of your day and we'll be back with you at 5 o'clock for top news. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.