By DEXTER DUGGAN
Heartbeat International, a global pregnancy-help organization claiming more than 2,800 affiliates (heartbeatinternational.org), told The Wanderer that the left-wing “openDemocracy” project used up some of the pro-lifers’ time that could have been spent helping women in need, but was unsuccessful in its aim.
Recent articles from openDemocracy (opendemocracy.net) focused on one of the services offered by Heartbeat International, abortion-pill reversal, expressing the usual contempt for trying to save babies targeted for chemical abortion and quoting pro-abortion sources and medical organizations compromised by the Culture of Death.
A March 24 news release from Heartbeat International said, “An irregular increase in international calls to the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) recently signaled another orchestrated offensive by the abortion lobby targeting pregnancy help. But Heartbeat International’s network of APR providers did not miss a beat, nor deviate from the mission of serving women who regret starting a chemical abortion.
“The APRN hotline nurses immediately noticed an uncharacteristic pattern,” the news release continued, “but despite the red flag, the committed professionals at both the APRN and Option Line continued to provide the usual compassionate service and care intended for women in genuine need.
“The suspicion was confirmed . . . as openDemocracy contacted Heartbeat for response to the ‘findings’ of its ‘investigative report’ on the APRN,” the release said.
openDemocracy articles cast scorn on abortion-pill reversal as unproven and unscientific — despite demonstrated cases of babies saved.
When The Wanderer viewed the openDemocracy website on March 29, its top story was headlined, “I’m a Yemeni trans man and my family want to kill me.” The sub-headline was, “Yahyia Al-Zindani had to flee his homeland in fear of his life but continues to do all he can to support Yemen’s trans community.”
In the upper left of its website was a drawing of a butterfly to the right of the words, “openDemocracy free thinking for the world.”
Wikipedia says openDemocracy has been funded by organizations including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and the Ford Foundation — all of them left wing and pro-abortion.
The Heartbeat International news release continued: “Anticipating the ruse the week before, Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey said that if pro-abortion forces such as the website behind previous unfounded criticism of Heartbeat’s life-saving work sought to convict Heartbeat of performing its Christ-centered mission of serving women facing unplanned pregnancy — then the verdict is guilty as charged….
“ ‘We hear from women every single day who regret taking mifepristone to end a pregnancy and desire a way to continue their pregnancies and rescue their babies,’ said Christa Brown, director of Medical Impact at Heartbeat International. ‘Abortion Pill Rescue Network listens to their requests and offers women real choices even after starting a chemical abortion’,” the news release said.
It added, “The APRN and staff at Option Line spent multiple hours with the duplicitous contacts, in some cases the conversations were spread out over two to three days. This was time taken from serving women who truly needed their services.”
Heartbeat International describes itself as “the largest network of pro-life pregnancy help in the world, with nearly 3,000 affiliated locations in more than 70 countries. Heartbeat’s mission is to reach and rescue as many lives as possible, around the world, through an effective network of life-affirming pregnancy help, to renew communities for life in order to achieve their vision of making abortion unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations.”
The Heartbeat organization describes the Abortion Pill Rescue Network this way: “Abortion pill reversal is a cutting-edge application of a time-tested, FDA-approved treatment used for decades to prevent miscarriage and preterm birth. It involves emergency, ongoing doses of progesterone to counteract the effects of the first abortion pill.
“From the moment a woman takes the abortion pill,” the description continues, “she has about 72 hours to change her mind and save her baby. The Abortion Pill Rescue Network answers more than 150 mission-critical calls a month from women who regret their abortion decision. Statistics show that more than 2,000 lives have been saved (and counting) through the abortion-pill reversal protocol.”
Andrea Trudden, Heartbeat’s senior director of communications and marketing, told The Wanderer on March 25 that openDemocracy “gained access into our procedures by posing as true clients. As part of our process, when a local provider is not immediately available or close (as in some of the countries they posed as calling from), we send them some information to take to their doctor or an ER so that they can begin the reversal process.
“They published their articles today and do include screenshots of our material, so we did provide them with information during their undercover calls,” Trudden said. “That said, nothing we shared is inaccurate. While they may have gained insight into our process, they were each treated with the same compassionate care we treat every woman who seeks abortion-pill reversal.”
Trudden also said, “It just continues to amaze us how much energy they put behind trying to belittle the use of progesterone — a hormone used by doctors for pregnant women every day to prevent miscarriage and preterm labor. Their angle is very biased and they ignore the stories of the women who share their abortion-pill reversal stories.”
She said Heartbeat published its side at PregnancyHelpNews.com.
openDemocracy said the lead researcher on a previous study of abortion-pill reversal said it was stopped because “It wasn’t safe for me to expose women to this treatment,” Trudden said. However, she said, that man is with Physicians for Reproductive Health, part of whose focus is, “Upholding access to abortion care for everyone.”
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress