Lawsuit: California AG violating free speech right to discuss abortion pill reversal

California is trying to stop pregnancy resource centers from discussing abortion pill reversal, a new lawsuit alleges.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the lawsuit on behalf of National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) and its member, SCV Pregnancy Center in Sacramento.

The complaint alleges state Attorney General Rob Bonta “is seeking an injunction to prevent pregnancy centers from telling the public about this life-saving option” of prescribing supplemental progesterone to women who have taken mifepristone, the first of two drugs offered in the drug-induced abortion regimen.

“Many women seeking abortions say they would have chosen life if they had had more support, and that is exactly what pro-life pregnancy centers in California seek to provide,” ADF said in a statement about the case. “In addition to ultrasounds, STI tests, training, and material support, many of these centers offer information about abortion pill reversal (APR), which can provide women an opportunity to save their children after taking the first of the abortion drugs.

“But (Bonta) is attempting to censor these pregnancy centers and prevent them from sharing important information with expectant mothers,” the Christian law firm added.

Government agencies and national organizations of doctors have a long history of supporting abortion rights and downplaying any data that suggest women may regret ending their unborn child’s life. 

As The Lion reported last month, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have long denied and actively fought against the effectiveness of abortion reversal procedures for women, both now admit chemical abortions can be interrupted and the unborn baby saved when progesterone is prescribed. 

Research shows APR has a 64-68% success rate, and data suggest the procedure has likely saved over 5,000 unborn children. 

ADF also filed a lawsuit in May on behalf of NIFLA and two pro-life pregnancy centers in New York – Gianna’s House and Options Care Center – alleging that New York Attorney General Letitia James is “invoking the State’s power to regulate business fraud to stop nonprofit pregnancy centers and a network of affiliated centers from providing the information” about APR that can ultimately save the life of an unborn baby. 

In August, the U.S. District Court in the Western District of New York ruled that the two nonprofit pro-life pregnancy centers and the network of affiliated centers in the state are free to tell women about the potential of saving their babies’ lives through the use of progesterone for APR while their lawsuit continues. 

“[O]ur Constitution and Constitutional tradition stand ‘against the idea that we need Oceania’s Ministry of Truth,’ … (citing G. Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949),” Judge John J. Sinatra, Jr., wrote, adding: 

“Fundamentally, freedom of speech and thought ‘flows not from the beneficence of the state but from the inalienable rights of the person.”