Mother changes mind midway through chemical abortion
Saves baby with help from loving professionals at Rolla PRC
Mallorie went from being a source of panic to being the most important thing in her mother’s life.
A change of heart and a quick, compassionate response was all it took.
“I love her with all my heart,” said Mallorie’s mother, Briana, who goes by Bri. “I’m very grateful that I get to be her Mom and watch her grow into the great little person that she is.”
Bri, now 29, found out about three and a half years ago that she was pregnant with her second child.
“I was really scared,” she said. “I didn’t know how my boyfriend was going to react. He had three kids already. There was a lot of emotion.”
Bri spent the rest of that day crying at home.
“I just didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I didn’t know what kind of support I’d have.”
Her mother and grandmother wanted her to be free to decide about the pregnancy but reminded her that once she’d had an abortion, she couldn’t go back and change her mind.
Bri desperately needed to hear from the baby’s father, “We’ll figure it out, we’ll make it work.”
Instead, later in the pregnancy, he told her directly that they couldn’t afford another child.
“I sat there and weighed a bunch of options in my head for a whole day,” Bri recalled.
In the end, she traveled with her cousin to Illinois for a drug-induced abortion.
The procedure requires two doses: the first to cut off the mother’s hormones through which her body supports and nourishes the baby in the womb.
The second, to be taken at home 24 hours later, would induce contractions, causing the mother’s body to rid itself of the lifeless baby.
Bri didn’t want an abortion but thought she had no other choice.
“I was there at the clinic for a good three or four hours, trying to decide what to do,” she recalled.
A clinic employee told her it was almost closing time.
Because of how far along Bri was in her pregnancy, she would have to come back for a surgical abortion if she didn’t take the first dose at that time.
“My cousin and the doctor were saying, ‘Just take the pill,’” she recalled. “So, I did.”
The reality hit her hard on the drive back home: “This is it. I’m never going to get to hold my baby.”
“I cried all the way from Illinois back to Rolla,” Bri recalled. “I cried the whole night and didn’t sleep at all.”
Before dawn the next morning, a Sunday, she was out in her car, digging for the phone number for Pam Sluder, client services director at the Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) of Rolla (supportmyprc.com).
Mrs. Sluder had given Bri a pregnancy test and told her to call if she ever needed anything.
“She got me into the office right away, and we started the protocol for reversing the abortion,” Bri recalled.
Jane Dalton, the PRC’s cofounder and executive director and an active member of St. Patrick Parish in Rolla, joined them.
“Both of them sat with me for hours and talked me through it and reassured me,” Bri recounted. “For the first time in weeks, I felt hope. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Bri felt like she could breathe again.
“I had someone on my side,” she said. “I actually had two people on my side.”
She took note of Mrs. Sluder’s and Mrs. Dalton’s “calming energy.”
“They told me I made the right decision to come in and get help, and that everything was going to be okay,” said Bri. “And it was.”
Just the beginning
Mallorie is one of nine babies so far who have been saved through the abortion-pill-reversal protocol at the PRC of Rolla.
Bri is one of 4,425 mothers whom the Rolla PRC has helped choose life for their babies since opening in 2007.
The Rolla PRC is one of many such entities that serve pregnant women and families throughout Missouri and the rest of the United States.
Bri returned to the Rolla PRC for an ultrasound the following Monday.
Seeing an image of her little daughter for the first time filled her heart with love and motherly conviction.
“And when they found the heartbeat and found out that everything was good, I was so relived,” she said.
Bri returned to the PRC each week for an ultrasound to make sure the baby was doing well.
She continued working her job as a medical specimen processing technician.
Mallorie was born on Aug. 4, 2023.
Bri and her former boyfriend parted ways a few months later.
Bri’s assessment: “It was for the best.”
She and Mallorie came to live at the Bridges Maternity Home in Rolla, a place where pregnant women and new mothers live in a faith-centered community and learn valuable parenting skills.
Mrs. Dalton is the home’s director.
Living there and working one-on-one with a life coach helps Bri set achievable goals, hold herself accountable and rebuild her confidence, step by step.
This has given her the foundation she needs in order to focus on what matters most: her future and that of her children.
“I’m trying to pay off student debt as much as I can,” she said. “Pam and I are working on the importance of having a budget and sticking to that budget.
“I’m also learning how it’s important to be on a good schedule and have a good routine no matter what’s going on,” she said.
She emphasized: “I’m learning how to be in control of my own life and not let people make decisions for me.”
Her goal is to continue working in the medical field, which she loves, and to possibly move someplace closer to her family in South Carolina.
She’s given some thought to going to nursing school someday.
“Nurses are heroes,” she said. “But, I’m really happy with the job I have now, and that kind of outweighs going to nursing school.”
What she needed
Bri thought back to what would have kept her from taking the abortion pill in the first place.
“I needed to hear that I have a real support system: ‘Yes, it’s your decision, but we’ll be here to support you, no matter what you do. And if you want to have this baby, we’ll help in any way we can,’” she said.
This past March, Mrs. Dalton and her husband, Joe, CEO of the PRC of Rolla, invited Bri to share her story at the PRC’s annual gala.
“I was so scared,” Bri recalled. “I had never, ever spoken in front of a group or anything like that.”
She stood up to address the crowd and started to cry.
“Thank God for Jane. She came up and stood beside me and held my hand,” said Bri.
She told the audience that through their support, she’s making strides toward financial self-sufficiency.
“Even more importantly, I’m creating a stable, loving home for Mallorie, where she can grow up surrounded by peace instead of the pain I once knew,” said Bri.
“I want Mallorie to grow up happy and healthy and get a good education so she can have a good life,” she stated.
Bri spoke of how the PRC staff and supporters believe in redemption and second chances, “even when women like me couldn’t always believe in ourselves.”
She said the PRC has given her “time to heal, tools to grow, and the chance to become the mom Mallorie deserves.”
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your kindness and changing our story,” she told the audience.
“You’re not alone”
Bri’s older daughter currently lives with Bri’s mother.
The two girls enjoy teasing each other and playing out their sassy attitude, which Bri says reminds her of herself.
Bri can’t imagine a world without Mallorie. She’s now convinced that God was who helped her realize she’d made a terrible mistake in taking the drug, and guided her toward people who could help her.
“I started this journey filled with confusion, doubt and uncertainty,” she said. “But choosing the abortion pill reversal turned it all around, replacing fear with overwhelming love and joy and certainty.”
To women now experiencing fear and doubt from an unplanned pregnancy, Bri cautioned against letting other people impose a hasty decision.
She was fortunate to be able to change her mind when she did. That’s not the case for many women, including those who have surgical abortions.
“Once you go through with it, it’s done, and you can’t go back,” she said.
Bri doesn’t want anyone to choose abortion.
“Because once you hold your baby, it changes your outlook on everything,” she said.
She also wants pregnant women in crisis to know that there are programs and resources available, “and you don’t have to do it alone.”
“There are other moms out there, there are groups, there are places like the PRC here,” she said. “It’s not hard to find them, but you have to take that first step.”
