Wondering who was telling the truth, a local Catholic did months of research about abortion pill reversal.
The result was a paper that won the Catholic Medical Association’s 2024 Linacre Quarterly Award.
Paul L. C. DeBeasi, of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Milford, learned Sept. 6 that he was among CMA’s 93rd Annual Education Conference award winners – through a friend who attended the conference.
“I was shocked,” said Mr. DeBeasi, who didn’t go and didn’t know his paper was being considered for an award.
His paper is titled, “Mifepristone Antagonization with Progesterone to Avert Medication Abortion: A Scoping Review.”
He told The Catholic Free Press in laymen’s terms what he was studying and why.
Abortion pill reversal is at the center of some lawsuits against pro-life pregnancy resource centers; some people claim that the pill is unsafe and doesn’t work, and therefore that those who offer it are deceiving women and putting them in jeopardy, he said.
“That was why I did [the research],” he said. “I felt like people were lying about it.” But he wasn’t sure which side was right.
In one way, he can trace his journey of looking into this to 2019, when he felt challenged by a statement by Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester on a “Word on Fire” podcast. Mr. DeBeasi recalled the popular bishop telling listeners that if they plan to write or do public speaking, they should know what they are talking about.
“It kind of struck me hard,” said Mr. DeBeasi, who’d been giving pro-life talks at parishes in the Worcester diocese. So, in the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020, he took the National Catholic Certification Program in Health Care Ethics, an online program of The National Catholic Bioethics Center.
That prepared him to continue on to get a master’s degree in bioethics from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, done online because of coronavirus restrictions. He was still working full time as a technology researcher, his field for the 17 years before he retired in September 2023. His previous careers had been in engineering and product management. The university wants graduates to make a difference by writing papers, upholding justice and being servant leaders, he said. After going to graduation exercises on campus in 2021, he sought God’s will for him.
At a 2022 Massachusetts Citizens for Life conference, he heard a talk by Dr. George Delgado, a pioneer in reversing the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone (RU 486) using progesterone.
“Why have I never heard of this?” Mr. DeBeasi asked his wife, Linda DeBeasi, a nurse practitioner who is now retired. She hadn’t heard of it either.
Mr. DeBeasi said he did research and discovered that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said abortion pill reversal is not supported by science and might be dangerous.
He found that the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs said abortion pill reversal is safe and effective, and doctors should inform women about it and prescribe it.
“Somebody is not telling me the truth,” thought Mr. DeBeasi. “As Catholics, we’re always trying to seek the truth. Which one is true?” He couldn’t tell.
“That’s not an easy question to answer,” he explained. “You have to get into the medical evidence ... and how they are analyzing it.”
So, he did his own research and shared what he learned with his seven fellow bioethics graduates from the University of Mary, with whom he held monthly Zoom calls to discuss such issues.
“They kept on saying, ‘You really ought to write a paper,’” he said. “That wasn’t my plan. ... But they eventually convinced me. I started putting together detailed evidence tables and explaining what it all means.”
He got others’ papers online free of charge, thanks to the interlibrary loan system through the Boston Public Library. After seven months of research and writing, in October 2022 he submitted his article to The Linacre Quarterly, the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association, which he expected was pro-life and searching for truth.
“I’d never published in a medical journal,” he said. “All my publications were technology-oriented papers,” from when he was an analyst, director of research and chief of research. The University of Mary had prepared him to apply that experience to medical topics.
Twice, the The Linacre Quarterly had a double-blind peer review done with Mr. DeBeasi’s paper; experts he didn’t know, who didn’t know him, critiqued it and he made changes in response. In March 2023 his article was accepted, he said. He paid $3,500 for open access, so it was posted online in May for anyone to read. It was published that fall in the printed journal.
“Abortion pill reversal – it’s a life and death situation,” he explained. “I looked at this as pro-life, time-urgent information.” If pregnant women and their doctors know about this option in time, babies can be saved from medication abortions.
“If you’re pro-choice or you’re pro-life,” you should approve of this reversal, he said. “Why would you be against” women choosing this option if you support choice?
Mr. DeBeasi concluded that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists withheld information that shows that abortion pill reversal is safe and effective. But doctors believe ACOG because it’s a medical association, and the media echoes its statements, he said. Additional studies are needed and being done, he said. His study was a snapshot of research from 1980 to early 2023.
In January this year, he said, he launched the website aprscience.org to provide a global hub for information about abortion pill reversal. He writes the content and Massachusetts Citizens for Life provides technological and financial support.
Now he’s doing research for another paper - to show whether abortion pill reversal therapy is ethical.
– Paul DeBeasi’s paper titled “Mifepristone Antagonization with Progesterone to Avert Medication Abortion: A Scoping Review” is available at tinyurl.com/4jww3vfk.