What Ohio's proposed abortion ban has to do with abortion pill "reversal"

We knew this would happen: Texas's SB8, the 6 week abortion ban that can be enforced by citizens, is being mimicked by other states. In Ohio, however, the version on SB8, known as House Bill 480, is more extreme - it's a total abortion ban that would allow anyone who helps an person access an abortion to be taken to court.

HB480 is also known as the 2363 Act (2363 represents the number of abortions performed in the US daily) was introduced by Ohio State Representatives Thomas Hall and Jena Powell. In a November 2021 email to supporters, Reproaction's Senior Research Analyst Kara Mailman pointed out that Powell spoke at Live Action's launch of the campaign, along with David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the anti-choice organization responsible for doctoring Planned Parenthood videos and illegally obtaining recordings of National Abortion Federation meetings. (Those videos proved to be fodder for clinic violence, specifically in the November 2015 attack on the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, as well as arson attacks, and a surge in anti-choicers blocking access to clinics.)

CMP also pedals the notion of abortion pill reversal. Mifepristone, one of two drugs used in abortion pills, stops the flow of progesterone to the fetus. Anti-choicers claim that if one supplements their body with high levels of progesterone after taking mifepristone, and doesn't take misoprostol - the second drug, which causes cramping, bleeding, and the expulsion of fetal tissue - then the abortion won't take place. There's no medical evidence to support the abortion pill reversal works, and the idea that people who take abortion pills are suddenly overtaken with panic and regret the moment the medicine passes their lips just doesn't stand up when one looks at what's known about people who have abortions - they seek them with the same, or more, confidence as they would any other medical procedure. (Also, abortion doesn't harm people's mental health, but not being able to access it does.)

With SB8, Texas set a precedent for abortion bans that empower anti-choice citizens to act as vigilantes, and in addition to the threat of being sued, abortion providers are turning away those seeking care every day. As bills like it and HB 480 continue to be replicated, it should be clear that this legislation has nothing to do with science, especially when we see that characters like Powell clearly dwell in the pockets of anti-choice groups like LiveAction and CMP. The dangerous misinformation that these organizations (including crisis pregnancy centers) push becomes mainstream when it's not countered with facts and exposed for what it is.