- A coalition of pro-life pregnancy centers, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), is suing California Attorney General Rob Bonta to protect their right to tell women information about abortion pill reversal.
- The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and SCV Pregnancy Center asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block Bonta from censoring their speech after he targeted other centers for promoting abortion pill reversal.
- Progesterone can reverse the effects of the abortion drug mifepristone if taken within 72 hours, with studies showing success rates of up to 68%.
- Bonta contends the information about abortion pill reversal is misleading, while ADF argues the information is accurate and protected by the First Amendment. ADF emphasizes that women deserve access to all medical information when making decisions about abortion.
A pregnancy resource center and a coalition of pro-life centers asked a federal appeals court Oct. 9 to protect their right to provide women with information about progesterone therapy, also called abortion pill reversal.
According to a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the nonprofit legal organization representing the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and SCV Pregnancy Center, the pro-life groups sued Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta after he targeted other pregnancy centers for promoting progesterone therapy. Concerned that they might be censored next, NIFLA and SCV asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to stop Bonta from banning women from making informed decisions.
ADF stated that taking the natural hormone progesterone within 72 hours of taking the abortion drug mifepristone has been scientifically proven to potentially reverse a chemical abortion. According to one study, progesterone therapy has up to a 68% rate of successfully counteracting mifepristone. Other statistics estimate that progesterone therapy has saved more than 6,000 babies. ADF added that progesterone “has been used for decades to prevent miscarriage and preterm labor.”
In the release, ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton, who argued before the court, stated that “access to information is the hallmark of a free society” and added that telling women about reversing abortions allows them to make “informed medical choices.”
“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 said, prior to the Oct. 9 oral arguments. “We will 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.”
ADF attorneys argue that Bonta’s actions are a violation of the pregnancy centers’ free speech rights. In an interview with The Lion, Dalton said that Bonta claims that information about abortion pill reversal is misleading and should be censored.
Dalton countered, “It’s actually correct information; that’s the type of information women are looking for — the type of information they have the right to access — and the First Amendment prohibits the attorney general from censoring that information.”
He later added, “The First Amendment is designed to protect speech that the government wants to restrict, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
According to The Lion, the pregnancy centers’ case appeared before the 9th Circuit after a lower court denied their request for an injunction against Bonta.
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