For emergency medical help to reversal a drug-induced abortion, immediately call the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) hotline at: (877) 558-0333
(LifeSiteNews) — Judges have denied efforts of pro-life centers in California and New Jersey to halt legal attacks against them for providing and promoting life-saving abortion pill reversal (APR).
Pro-life groups in the U.S. have increasingly been under investigation and have suffered lawsuits due to claims of “misleading” the public about the safety and effectiveness of abortion reversal. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Biden administration has loosened restrictions on dangerous chemical abortion pill distribution with little to no medical supervision or regulatory oversight.
One group that provides abortion pill reversal, Culture of Life Family Services (COLFS), sued California’s Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta after he sued other groups over what he called “misleading” statements about APR.
READ: 4,000 babies in the US have been saved by abortion pill reversal since 2012: report
On Tuesday, Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California dismissed COLFS’s lawsuit against Bonta, claiming that COLFS had not shown that “its free-speech rights were injured by legal actions he filed against two like-minded groups,” Bloomberg Law reported.
Bonta had attempted to block Heartbeat International and RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics from informing women about the abortion pill reversal method, alleging that they violated the state’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law.
Pro-abortion detractors like Bonta claim that APR is unproven and potentially harmful, but as pro-life OB/GYN Dr. William Lile has explained, the technique is based on principles that are well understood from progesterone’s common, FDA-approved use in a variety of other pregnancy-related situations. According to the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN), “initial studies of APR have shown it has a 64-68% success rate.” Heartbeat International also publishes anecdotal, firsthand testimonials from women who have benefited from the technique.
In its recent lawsuit, Culture of Life described Bonta’s actions against Heartbeat International as “lawfare,” “motivated by [Bonta’s] retaliatory animus against pro-life speech and expressive association of all pro-life pregnancy help resource organizations.”
Culture of Life also lamented that Bonta’s targeting of other pro-life groups cast a shadow over their own attempts to counsel women about abortion pill reversal and said that because it was a “content-based restriction on speech about APR,” it violates Free Speech rights of the First Amendment.
However, Judge Curiel argued that Culture of Life hadn’t shown a “realistic danger” of injury by Bonta’s legal action against the other pro-life groups and that Bonta targeted not pro-life advocacy per se but specific “misleading” statements.
“Curiel said he wouldn’t delve into the merits of whether the statements actually were false and misleading or protected by the First Amendment in order to decide on Culture of Life’s standing,” Bloomberg Law reported.
Curiel has given Culture of Life seven days to change its complaint to demonstrate standing.
In New Jersey, pro-life group First Choice Women’s Resource Center Inc. sued the state’s Democratic attorney general, Matthew Platkin, after he served the group an investigative subpoena seeking information to uncover whether it was likewise disseminating allegedly “misleading” statements about its abortion pill reversal services.
However, Judge Michael A. Shipp of the District of New Jersey dismissed First Choice’s case in January, on the grounds that the attorney general had made no efforts to enforce the subpoena. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed Shipp’s decision in July, after a state court determined the subpoena was enforceable.
Shipp thereafter ruled that First Choice hadn’t shown that its request to stop the subpoena was ready for review. “Whether First Choice will be compelled to disclose information it says is constitutionally protected is still ‘an open question,’” he said, according to Bloomberg Law.
It is not until all related proceedings in New Jersey have been resolved in Platkin’s favor that First Choice’s claimed injury will be considered ripe for review, according to Shipp.
For emergency medical help to reversal a drug-induced abortion, immediately call the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) hotline at: (877) 558-0333