After she saw her positive pregnancy test, Trisha (a pseudonym), panicked. She could not have another baby. She had three children, including one with autism. This could not be happening.
Trisha got on her phone and contacted Aid Access, one of dozens of online abortion drug sellers that sell pills to anyone willing to make the purchase.
The pill distributor’s website states that the pills cost $150 and financial assistance will be given to those who cannot pay. It also states that a medical professional “will look at your information,” and a “U.S. licensed pharmacy will mail you the pills.”
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Chemical abortions account for most abortions in the U.S., some statistics saying at least 63%, and other estimates significantly higher. There have been considerable concerns for years over the largely unregulated status and open access to chemical abortion drugs and how this puts countless women at risk.
Despite the claim that the chemical abortion pills are effective 96 to 99 percent of the time, after obtaining and taking the pills Trisha was still pregnant.
This distraught and anxious mom was living in Houston and sought the help of a pregnancy center there.
Initially, Trisha had just wanted to end the pregnancy out of fear.
“I knew exactly what I was about to do,” she told Pregnancy Help News during a phone interview.
Trisha was in the process of moving to the south side of Houston when she learned of this pregnancy. She said her first pregnancy test on March 20 of this year was negative, but a follow up test on March 24 was positive. She said she felt confident the pills would work because she had been here before.
Trisha said she became pregnant in September 2025, and a friend told her about Aid Access. She ordered the pills and had them in her hands within two days. Trisha said she “passed the baby.”
It was a difficult thing for Trisha.
“It didn’t hit me for months,” she said. “One day in January I called my friend and I told her, ‘I’m kind of sad,’ (about the abortion).”
A couple of months later she was spending time with the father of her youngest child. The two were intimate and a positive pregnancy test in March once again took her back to a place of panic. She felt certain she could not manage having another child.
Trisha again went to Aid Access online and ordered abortion pills online.
“They came in two days,” Trisha recalled.
This time, though, there was something different, Trisha said.
She took the initial dose and then the additional pills two days later, but something wasn’t right.
Typically, the first dose of the abortion pill, mifepristone, blocks progesterone, which holds the baby intact in the uterus. The second dose of pills, misoprostol, is designed to cause uterine contractions and bleeding as the baby is expelled. Trisha took both the first pill and the second set of pills.
“My body didn’t react,” she said. “I’m expecting bleeding. There was no bleeding.”
Trisha said she did have some digestive issues, but nothing more.
She said she went to the emergency room two days later on March 27. The pregnancy test in the hospital was positive. She was told she was likely to be only four weeks pregnant, and maybe more time was needed for the abortion pills to work. A nurse in the ER told her she had taken the abortion pill herself and that sometimes the body’s reaction is delayed.
“I went back home and took two to three more pills,” said Trisha. “I had had extra from when I took them in 2025. I had plenty.”
The second dose of the abortion pill is often four pills (800 mcg) of misoprostol.
Trisha continued with her story.
“I had some light bleeding and some cramping,” she said. “I went back to the ER March 31. The pregnancy test was still positive.”
Her HCG levels (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, the pregnancy hormone) were four times what they had been previously.
Trisha said a medical provider told her, “It takes time.”
“I told myself I would give it two weeks,” she said.
However, Trisha saw a doctor again in less than two weeks, and as she shared what happened next, she began to cry.
“They saw a heartbeat and a sac,” Trisha said. “I feel very sick. I’m overwhelmed. Deep down I told myself, ‘If you try again, you are going to hurt yourself and your baby.’”
It was then that she reached out to Houston Pregnancy Help Centers.
Trisha said she remembered the center from five years before. She had been at one of their four other locations for an ultrasound with her son.
“I knew I needed an ultrasound,” she said of this current pregnancy. In the ER she was unable to see the baby on the screen. The technician only told her what was visible. Trisha wanted to see for herself.
It was then she met Ruby Gusman, the sonographer at the south Houston office.
Trisha said she told Ruby everything.
And Ruby encouraged her to throw away the remainder of the pills at her home.
Trisha said her conversation with Ruby took her back to the faith she had always had but had stuffed down inside.
“I realized it was in God’s hands now,” she said.
Remarkably, despite having taken a total of 12 abortion pills, Trisha’s baby was still viable. She learned her baby is a little girl.
“How could this baby still be alive?” she asked repeatedly.
Trisha was moved that complete strangers would care for her without judgment. She said she went home that day and threw the rest of the pills in the trash.
“That was three months ago,” Trisha said, “and I am still scared, but I am also very grateful for this pregnancy. This baby is so strong. I sometimes get nervous and I look for blood every day. But there’s nothing.”
At the time of her interview with Pregnancy Help News Trisha was 20 weeks pregnant. She is a single mom to a 15-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a five-year-old. Her baby daughter is due by December 4.
Trisha is enrolled in classes at the Houston center.
“I see a life coach (at the center) and I receive a lot of love,” she said.
Gusman was present on the phone call with Pregnancy Help News. She said she has watched Trisha grow in her trust for the staff at the center over the last three months.
“She had told us she couldn’t feel loved by random people,” Gusman said. “That was the best thing she could have told us. We were committed to making sure she felt loved.”
Gusman said Trisha has been a light to other clients who come to the center, as she can share her own experiences and support other moms.
Trisha said Houston Pregnancy Help Center has helped her lean back into her relationship with God.
“The Lord showed me I am so much stronger than I think I am,” Trisha said. “I love the Lord so much. I am very blessed.”
Trisha has advice for women who panic and order the abortion pill when they have a positive pregnancy test, and it’s to not overreact in the moment and do something you may regret – there is pregnancy help available.
“If you’re in a situation like this, don’t ignore that inner voice in your head,” she said.
Trisha continues to prepare for the birth of her daughter with support from Houston Pregnancy Help Centers.
LifeNews Note: Tabitha Goodling has been writing for media outlets for more than 20 years in her home state of Pennsylvania. She has served as a client services director at her local pregnancy center since 2018. She and her husband are raising four teenage daughters, which include a set of triplets. This column originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News.
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