During the talk, Dr Kearney described the abortion reversal treatment he describes to pregnant people and compared himself to Oskar Schindler.
Calls have been made for investigations into a doctor who admitted while giving a talk at the University of Glasgow that he prescribes abortion reversal treatment to women in Scotland, which has been described as “unethical and dangerous”.
Cardiologist Dr Dermot Kearney was invited to give a talk by the Glasgow Students for Life (GSL) society, in which he described prescribing “abortion reversal” treatment and how he hoped to encourage other UK doctors to offer it. The procedure involves taking an extremely high dose of progesterone immediately after taking the first of the two regular abortion pills. Abortion pills contain mifepristone, a pregnancy blocking hormone, and the high dose of progesterone is intended to reverse the effects of this. The doctor claimed his treatment to have a 50% success rate.
Progesterone is not licensed for use in this way in the UK, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence explicitly outlines it as not to be used in this circumstance. Dr Kearney admitted during the talk that two patients to whom he prescribed the treatment required blood transfusions. He added that this was two patients out of around sixty, at least that he was “aware of”.
A trial on the abortion reversal pill in 2020 was halted after three out of the first 12 patients experienced severe haemorrhages and required emergency care.
Dr Kearney has previously been investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC) but was allowed to continue practicing.
The Times attended the talk and reported that the cardiologist compared himself to the savior of Jewish lives during WW2, Oskar Schindler, and The Equalizer, a film looking at vigilantism.
Green MSP Gillian Mackay called for Dr Kearney to be investigated once again by the GMC, stating: “No health professional should be peddling misleading information or recommending and prescribing these unsafe and unlicensed drugs. It is unethical and dangerous.”
Dr Kearney replied to the comment on Twitter, writing to the MSP: “I have not peddled any misleading information. I stand by every word I have uttered in every presentation I have delivered on this topic. I stand by the mothers & fathers & babies I have helped with this safe & essential service.”
GSL told The Times its members “believe in the inherent dignity of the human person and in the inalienable right to life from conception until natural death” and “promote that right”.
Glasgow Students for Choice, a pro-choice group on campus, told The Glasgow Guardian: “While practising their profession doctors should put the safety of patients first. Dr. Kearney’s medical practices are not as safe as he claims, clearly go against the licensed use of progesterone in the UK and Nice guidelines, and therefore have to be further investigated. Even more concerning is a society at our University supporting him. We cannot help but notice the irony of how they support the reversal of the choice to have an abortion, but not the choice to ‘reverse’ pregnancy.”
