Legal battle continues in Colorado over the right for women to choose life

Live Action News Update 4/9/2024: According to Alliance Defending Freedom, a federal district court issued an order on Monday allowing Chelsea Mynyk, a licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife who runs Castle Rock Women’s Health, to intervene in a current lawsuit (Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser) defending her service of abortion pill reversal.

Like Bella Health and Wellness, Mynyk argues that she is driven by her faith to provide abortion pill reversal to women who request it. She received a letter two months ago from the Colorado State Board of Nursing notifying her that she is under investigation for a possible violation of the Nurses Practice Act following an anonymous complaint about her service of abortion pill reversal.

(Pregnancy Help News 4/8/2024) —  The state of Colorado ratified a law prohibiting medical professionals from administering Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) which effectively forces women to continue an abortion which they no longer want.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit to defend the practice of APR. The lawsuit, Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser, seeks to challenge the enacted law.

Kevin Theriot is senior counsel with ADF and a member of ADF’s Center for Life Team. The team’s focus is to defend pro-life laws and speech and protect medical rights of conscience.

Chelsea Mynyk, owner of Castle Rock Women’s Health is a licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife. Theriot and Mynyk talked with Pregnancy Help News concerning the lawsuit challenging Colorado state law prohibiting medical providers from offering APR.

An investigation of Castle Rock’s practice of the APR protocol is underway by the Colorado board of nursing. This action prompted ADF to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of Mynyk’s practice.

Being notified of a complaint against Mynyk last month, ADF filed a response to the complaint March 22. Because of the investigation, Theriot is asking the court to intercede as the investigation is having the effect of silencing Mynyk and other medical professionals in their efforts to save the lives of unborn children.

Pregnancy Help News asked Theriot and Mynyk if there was any other way to explain Colorado’s law prohibiting the use of APR other than the state is protecting the abortion industry.

“I don’t think so if you look at the legislative history,” Theriot said. “The purpose of the law clearly was to protect the abortion industry and Chelsea was actually at some of the legislative sessions.”

“I had the privilege of testifying last year when these bills were being discussed at the senate and house floors,” Mynyk said. “And it’s very pro-abortion and just a lot of evil behind it.”

“They don’t even care about the woman’s rights or her ability to choose, even though in a previous year they put into law that a woman has the fundamental right to either have an abortion or to carry her pregnancy to term,” she said. “Now this law, senate bill 23-190, contradicts that stating that women can only choose to have abortion.”

The Colorado Board of Nursing’s investigation into Mynyk’s practice is unlawful, Mynyk and Theriot contend.

Can the ABORTION PILL be REVERSED?

“It’s unlawful because the investigation itself is chilling Chelsea’s rights and her free exercise right to offer something to help save lives and also her free speech rights which she uses to communicate to women that she offers these services,” Theriot noted.

“She had some specific language on her website talking about Abortion Pill Reversal that she took down once this law was enacted,” he said.

Mynyk is currently helping two clients utilizing APR.

“They immediately regretted their decision after taking that first chemical abortion drug, mifepristone,” she said. “They were in tears of desperation wanting to know if there’s something they could take to save their babies and to help them.”

“Their babies are doing well; they continue to grow,” said Mynyk. “It’s amazing to see the moms go from fear and overwhelming pressures—now they’re falling in love with their babies when they see them on ultrasound.”

Mynyk discussed her experience with serving patients.

“The most common form of an abortion right now in the U.S. is the chemical abortion pill and partly because this is available through the mail,” she said. “The patient doesn’t even have to see a doctor or get a prescription they can just order it online.”

“The majority of abortions take place in the first trimester which is up to 12 weeks,” continued Mynyk. “These ladies that reached out to us are similar to what we have found with other women too; that immediately they regret their decision within even hours sometimes.”

Patients have described to Mynyk the frustration of going to an abortion facility seeking to know if they were pregnant, but instead being given abortion pills [] with instructions for how to take the drugs, while not given full understanding of what the results would be.

“The primary thing is that we’re able to assure that professionals like Chelsea aren’t silenced and that they’re able to continue to offer to women the ability to continue their pregnancies when they change their mind,” Theriot said. “There are some real stories here that should be told. One of them is the story of why she became involved in APR.”

Mynyk considers all human life to be sacred from conception to natural death. Psalm 139 inspires the foundation of Castle Rock practice: “I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

“Part of that inspiration was when we were pregnant with our second baby and they found some unexpected findings on our eight-week ultrasound and our doctor on several occasions pressured us into having an abortion saying that there’s potentially a Down syndrome baby here,” Mynyk recalled. “And we were just surprised with how much she pressured us telling us this would be the best thing for us and for our baby.”

Care is offered to women at Castle Rock at no or a very low cost.

Considering Mynyk’s pro-life values it was concerning to her what other women who don’t have that foundation go through under similar pressures to accept abortion as a solution when it only offers the death of your child.

“We wanted to start our clinic with that goal in mind that every life is precious,” Mynyk said. “Every woman that comes through the door is loved and valuable.”

Mynyk has observed that a Biblical view of life positively affects one’s worldview and informs a medical professional to protect life, which motivates her decisions and actions at Castle Rock.

In his own experience with defending life, Theriot has often witnessed that when women regret their abortions the abortion industry feels threatened by APR.

“The effects of chemical abortion are profoundly negative for women,” he said. “The fact that they might change their mind really undermines their narrative that women need abortion and it’s always the best thing for them. When in fact that is just not true and Chelsea’s experience and the women that she’s helped prove that.”

PHN Editor’s Note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News.

LAN Editor’s Note: This article was published at Pregnancy Help News and is reprinted here with permission.

The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.