Two pro-life organizations have asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the state from censoring pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) that educate their clients about abortion pill reversal.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• California AG Rob Bonta sued two PRC networks for offering “abortion pill reversal” to women who change their minds after taking the first drug in the abortion pill protocol.

• Bonta believes “abortion pill reversal” — the administration of the pregnancy hormone progesterone to counter the anti-progesterone effects of the abortion pill — is “misleading” and has banned the centers from offering information about it.

• A lower court sided with Bonta, but the PRC attorneys have appealed to the Ninth Circuit for their First Amendment right to free speech.

THE DETAILS:

In 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued national PRC network Heartbeat International and RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics, the latter of which operates five PRC locations within California, stating that they can’t provide clients with information about ‘abortion pill reversal’ because of his belief that it is “misleading.”

Because that lawsuit threatens all PRCs in the state, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and the SCV Pregnancy Center in Santa Clarita, California, arguing that Bonta’s attempt at censorship is a clear violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. A federal district court denied the petition to halt the PRC censorship, so ADF is now asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene.

READ: ‘Against Goliath’: California medical pregnancy centers set to defend ‘abortion pill reversal’ at trial

‘Abortion pill reversal’ is the name given to the process of administering doses of progesterone to outcompete the progesterone-blocking effects of the abortion pill drug mifepristone. Progesterone is a natural pregnancy hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy, and has been safely administered to women for decades.

The Abortion Pill Rescue Network credits ‘abortion pill reversal’ for saving more than 6,000 lives as of November 2024.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

“Access to information is a hallmark of a free society and is essential to making informed medical choices,” said ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton.

“Every woman should have the option to reconsider going through with a chemical abortion, and the pro-life pregnancy centers we represent truthfully inform women about that choice,” he added. “We urge the court to affirm the pregnancy centers’ freedom to tell the public about this lawful, life-saving treatment and end the attorney general’s censorship.”