(Oregon Right to Life) — Pro-life pregnancy resource centers scored a victory last week when a district judge barred New York’s attorney general from prosecuting them for advertising about abortion pill reversal. The temporary block will remain in effect pending a final resolution.
On August 22, federal district court judge John L. Sinatra granted a preliminary injunction against Democratic New York Attorney General Leticia James, temporarily stopping her from pursuing fraud charges against Heartbeat International, CompassCare, and a network of pro-life pregnancy help organizations that advertise for abortion pill reversal (APR).
APR is a protocol in which a woman takes the hormone progesterone in an effort to save her unborn baby after she has already consumed mifepristone, the first drug in the chemical abortion regimen. Mifepristone works by blocking the action of progesterone, which the unborn human being needs to survive in the womb. Advocates of APR say that taking progesterone, typically within 24–72 hours of consuming mifepristone, can save the pregnancy.
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A 2018 peer-reviewed study on the use of progesterone to combat the effects of mifepristone estimated a 64–68% success rate. However, the procedure is not FDA approved, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists claims the procedure fails to “meet clinical standards.”
AG James argued that the pro-life organizations advertising APR were committing fraud by “spreading dangerous misinformation” about the procedure – but the pro-life groups, with the legal representation of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said their advertisements were protected under the First Amendment. In its decision, the district court sided with the ADF and the pro-life organizations.
“The First Amendment protects Plaintiffs’ right to speak freely about [abortion pill reversal] protocol and, more specifically, to say that it is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use in consultation with her doctor,” the court wrote. “Indeed, the ‘very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind through regulating the press, speech, and religion.’”
“To ‘this end, the government, even with the purest of motives, may not substitute its judgment as to how best to speak for that of speakers and listeners; free and robust debate cannot thrive if directed by the government,’” the court continued. “And this is particularly true ‘in the fields of medicine and public health, where information can save lives.’”
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ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton praised the decision in an August 22 statement.
“Women in New York have literally saved their babies from an in-progress chemical drug abortion because they had access to information through their local pregnancy centers about using safe and effective progesterone for abortion pill reversal. But the attorney general tried to deny women the opportunity to even hear about this life-saving option,” Dalton said. “The court was right to affirm the pregnancy centers’ freedom to tell interested women about this life-saving treatment option.”
Anyone interested in learning more about abortion pill reversal, or any woman who has taken the first chemical abortion drug and wants to reverse the process, can click here or call the APR hotline at (877) 558-0333.
