ADF Intervenes to Defend Pro-Life Nurse After Colorado Bans Abortion Pill Reversal
Abortion pill reversal (APR) is a safe process that allows women a chance to continue their pregnancy if they change their mind about having an abortion. In the process, doctors and nurses use the natural hormone progesterone to counteract the effects of mifepristone, the first of two drugs commonly used in chemical abortions.
Many women have changed their minds about abortion after taking mifepristone and before taking misoprostol, the second drug. During this window, APR can provide a chance to save the baby.
While APR is not guaranteed to reverse the effects of abortion drugs, research shows it has a 64-68 percent success rate, and statistics indicate it has saved over 5,000 unborn children. Since progesterone is a natural hormone needed to sustain pregnancy, the process does not put women in danger.
Despite these facts, Colorado inexplicably banned the practice of APR and silenced medical professionals who wish to inform people about it.
Why did Bella Health and Wellness sue Colorado?
In April 2023, Colorado passed a law prohibiting all medical professionals from providing abortion pill reversal. The law also bars medical professionals from advertising or even informing their patients about APR.
As a life-affirming Catholic medical center, Bella Health and Wellness believes it is called to protect human life. It wants to continue offering APR as an opportunity to save unborn lives, but under Colorado’s law, offering APR could mean fines of up to $20,000 per violation for doing so.
Bella Health’s attorneys at the Becket Fund filed a lawsuit the same month the law was passed, and it secured a preliminary injunction preventing Colorado from enforcing its APR ban while the lawsuit proceeds. But the injunction only applies to Bella Health. In other words, Colorado can still enforce its law against anyone else.
How is Alliance Defending Freedom involved in the case?
Chelsea Mynyk is a nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife in Colorado. She runs her own clinic, Castle Rock Women’s Health, where she offers STD testing and treatment, select ultrasounds, prenatal care, various parenting classes, and APR.
Like Bella Health, Chelsea believes all life is created by God and worthy of protection, and she wants to continue her life-saving work.
But in January 2024, an anonymous individual filed a complaint against Chelsea because she offers APR. The Colorado Board of Nursing opened an investigation into Chelsea and her practice, so Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion to intervene in Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser on Chelsea’s behalf.
Colorado is violating the Constitution
The First Amendment ensures that all Americans can live, work, and speak consistent with their consciences. Colorado’s law violates both religious freedom and freedom of speech.
Chelsea offers abortion pill reversal because she believes—in line with her Christian faith—that all human lives are precious and worthy of protection. By banning Chelsea from providing this care, Colorado is violating her religious freedom.
Furthermore, Colorado is violating Chelsea’s freedom of speech by preventing her from advertising or even speaking to her patients about the possibility of APR.
The state knows that progesterone is a natural and necessary hormone in pregnancy, which is why it has not outlawed its use to prevent miscarriages and help women avoid going into labor prematurely. Colorado has only made the use of progesterone illegal for one group of people: women who have changed their mind about having an abortion.
By depriving women of the choice to try to save their baby and preventing health-care professionals from offering APR to women who want it, Colorado is pushing an extreme pro-abortion agenda. These unconstitutional actions cannot be allowed to stand.
Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser
- April 2023: After Colorado passed an unconstitutional law banning abortion pill reversal, Bella Health and Wellness challenged it in a lawsuit.
- October 2023: A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction preventing Colorado from enforcing the law against Bella Health while the lawsuit proceeds.
- January 2024: The Colorado Board of Nursing opened an investigation into Chelsea Mynyk because an anonymous individual filed a complaint about Chelsea offering APR.
- March 2024: Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit on Chelsea’s behalf.
- April 2024: ADF’s motion to intervene in the case was granted.