Court strikes down Colorado law banning ‘abortion pill reversal’

According to the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Colorado district court issued an order on Friday to permanently block a state law prohibiting medical professionals from providing women with the option of ‘abortion pill reversal’ (APR).

Key Takeaways:

• On August 1, Colorado District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico ordered a permanent injunction on SB23-190, the Colorado law banning the administration of ‘abortion pill reversal.’

•  The state has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Tenth Circuit.

• ‘Abortion pill reversal’ uses progesterone in an attempt to outcompete the effects of the first drug of the abortion pill.

The Details:

Colorado District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico issued an order on August 1 in Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser, blocking SB23-190, Deceptive Trade Practice Pregnancy-related Service. The law banned medical professionals, including OB/GYNs and midwives, from offering abortion pill reversal to their patients by labeling APR as “unprofessional conduct.”

Judge Domenico wrote, “The Defendants have thus failed to show that they have a compelling interest in regulating this practice, and Plaintiffs’ motion must therefore be granted to the extent it seeks a permanent injunction allowing them to continue offering the treatment.”

Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, co-founders of Bella Health and Wellness, celebrated the ruling. “Colorado tried to deprive pregnant women of the life-affirming care that is best for them and their babies. We are overjoyed that the court has recognized our constitutional right to continue offering this support to the many women who come to our clinic seeking help.”   

‘Abortion pill reversal’ works by using progesterone to outcompete the effects of the first drug of the abortion pill regimen, mifepristone. Progesterone has been used for decades in an attempt to prevent miscarriage, but abortion proponents have been discrediting it as a way to counteract mifepristone, which kills a developing preborn child by blocking the pregnancy-sustaining hormone progesterone. However, many claim that APR has a track record proving that it works. OB/GYN Dr. Christina Francis stated in a video about “abortion pill reversal”:

If a woman has taken the first medication [mifepristone], and then changes her mind before taking the second medication [misoprostol], then we can give her large doses of progesterone to try and displace the first medication from the receptors and to try and block the effects of any further action from that medication. And in doing so, then, we can lead to having a normal, successful pregnancy. And that happens about 70% of the time.

ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, who represented Colorado certified nurse midwife and licensed nurse practitioner Chelsea Mynyk, said in a press release, “Government officials can’t silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives. Many women regret their chemical abortions, and some choose to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug, which can save their baby’s life. But Colorado’s law wrongly attempted to deny women the freedom to make that choice. The court is right to rule that the state can’t force women to follow through with a chemical abortion when a safe alternative is available—one that Chelsea and the pro-life plaintiffs in this case can skillfully provide.”

Colorado has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Tenth Circuit. 

The Backstory:

SB23-190 was enacted in April 2023, in part prohibiting doctors and nurses from providing APR and thereby forcing women to complete abortions they no longer wanted. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sued Colorado on behalf of Bella Health and Wellness, a pro-life pregnancy center, and the judge ordered a preliminary injunction on the law, allowing Bella Health doctors to continue providing APR as the lawsuit moved forward.

The injunction, however, only applied to Bella Health. Mynyk runs Castle Rock Women’s Health, where she also offers APR to women who request it. In February 2024, the Colorado State Board of Nursing notified her that she was under investigation for a possible violation of the Nurse Practice Act because of an anonymous complaint that she was administering APR. Mynyk, represented by ADF, was able to join the lawsuit, allowing the injunction to apply to her and her health center as well.

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