Court hands major victory to pro-life groups
A federal judge awarded a legal victory to pro-life groups Thursday after New York Attorney General Letitia James tried to censor them from speaking about abortion pill reversals.
What are APR treatments?
Pro-life pregnancy centers have been offering abortion pill reversal (APR) treatments to women who have taken abortion pills such as mifepristone, which blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone. APR treatment involves administering FDA-approved progesterone supplements, which have been shown to successfully reverse the abortion pill’s effects and lead to healthy births.
Progesterone is commonly prescribed by physicians for women who are at risk of having a preterm birth, have a history of miscarriages, or suffer excessive blood loss during menstruation, to support endometrial function during in vitro fertilization, and other cases.
Research shows that progesterone is effective at preserving pregnancy after taking mifepristone. In a 2018 study, 547 women who took the abortion pill underwent progesterone treatment within 72 hours after taking mifepristone. The protocol had a 48% success rate, including 247 live births and four miscarriages of viable babies after 20 weeks.
When divided into subgroups, the researchers found that pregnancies in women who took intramuscular progesterone had a 64% survival rate, while those in women who took high-dose oral progesterone had a 68% survival rate.
AG James attempts to suppress APR
In an effort to block these treatments, AG James has been suing pregnancy centers and their networks for false advertising. She has accused them of spreading “misinformation” and making “false and misleading statements” by stating that progesterone supplements may help continue a pregnancy if taken in the first few days after ingesting the abortion pill.
James has made no allegations of APR treatments being unsafe for women or causing harm.
Last week, US District Judge John Sinatra issued a preliminary injunction against AG James in response to a complaint filed by pro-life centers Gianna’s House, the Options Care Center, and the pregnancy center network National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. The groups, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), charged James with violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Court rules against James
In his ruling, Judge Sinatra confirmed that James is indeed trespassing on taxpayers’ First Amendment rights.
“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,” Sinatra wrote in his decision. “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.’”
The judge also hinted that James’ efforts to silence pro-life centers is Orwellian.
“More to the point—our Constitution and Constitutional tradition stand ‘against the idea that we need Oceania’s Ministry of Truth,’” he added.
“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,” said ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton in a statement following the ruling. “Many women regret their abortions, and some seek to stop the effects of abortion drugs before taking the second drug in the abortion drug process. Taking supplemental progesterone may give them a chance to save their baby’s life. Women should have the option to reconsider an abortion, and the pro-life pregnancy centers we represent in this case truthfully inform them about that choice. The court was right to affirm the pregnancy centers’ freedom to tell interested women about this life-saving treatment option.”
