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The California attorney general wants a judge to believe that abortion reversal is unscientific and “experimental,” but there are numerous babies alive today because their mothers changed their minds and received the just-in-time treatment necessary to safely and successfully continue their pregnancies.
Attorneys with the Thomas More Society have asked a California court to dismiss Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit against Heartbeat International and pro-life pregnancy centers that claims their abortion pill reversal service is “fraudulent, “experimental,” and “unlawful.”
California Attorney General Bonta sued Heartbeat International and RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics last fall, charging that they mislead patients by saying that abortion through medication can be reversed.
Bonta said in a press release, “Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance — not lies and misinformation. And let me be clear: the evidence shows that the vast majority of people do not regret their decision to have an abortion — more than 95% of patients who undergo an abortion later say they made the right decision. HBI and RealOptions took advantage of pregnant patients at a deeply vulnerable time in their lives, using false and misleading claims to lure them in and mislead them about a potentially risky procedure. We are launching today’s lawsuit to put a stop to their predatory and unlawful behavior.”
California alleges there is “absolutely no scientific evidence” to support the claim that an abortion can be reversed.
Chemical abortion is administered through two separate pills. The first pill is mifepristone, which blocks the hormone progesterone from reaching the fetus, eventually killing it. When the woman takes the second pill, misoprostol, it forces the mother to expel the dead body.
The chemical abortion can be reversed if a large dose of progesterone is administered within 24 hours after the woman takes the first pill (and sometimes as long as 72 hours after). Its advocates claim that the baby can be saved in 64 to 68 percent of cases.
Heartbeat International, which is based in Ohio, is an international network of thousands of pro-life pregnancy centers and provides referrals to women who are looking for abortion reversal.
RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics, located in several California cities, provide abortion pill reversal services.
Their legal representation’s motion to dismiss Bonta’s complaint argues that Bonta’s suit is politically motivated. It also claims that a peer-reviewed study showed that abortion pill reversal can work and that it has been used to save thousands of children’s lives.
Their argument makes three main claims:
While Bonta says he is trying to protect women, the defendants claim that it is Bonta who is limiting women’s options.
Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation for Thomas More Society, stated,
“Women undergoing chemical abortions deserve the truth: even after starting a chemical abortion, they may still be able to save their babies. California and its Attorney General Rob Bonta are illegally and unconstitutionally seeking to rip away ‘choice’ from women in dire need by attacking pregnancy help ministries like Heartbeat and RealOptions, to shut down their promotion of Abortion Pill Reversal. Abortion Pill Reversal provides real hope for women who want to stop their abortions and continue their pregnancies. Today’s massive legal filings mark the most ambitious and broad-based counterattack by the pro-life movement against the efforts of state officials, like Rob Bonta, who intend to prevent women from accessing this potentially life-saving treatment option.”
California argues there is “no scientific evidence” that abortion pill reversal works — except, of course, for a peer-reviewed study and the many, many babies who are alive and thriving after their mothers underwent the treatment.
These include Katelynn Perry, a young woman who took the first abortion pill at Planned Parenthood and left with a prescription for the other pills when she realized that she didn’t want to lose her baby. After a Google search, she found Heartbeat International, which quickly referred her to a local pregnancy center that could administer the reversal regimen. Today, her baby, Aubrey Perry, is a healthy one-year-old “and the sweetest little girl you would ever meet,” according to her proud mother.
So those who say abortion reversal doesn’t work aren’t being truthful. It might not work every time — but it does work if administered in time.
But Rob Bonta is clearly an advocate for abortion, not women’s health and certainly not for women’s choices. These can be seen in his many communications on the topic. When Bonta filed the suit against Heartbeat International and RealOptions, for example, he posted on X,
“Access to reproductive healthcare—including abortion care—is your right in California. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you believe you’ve been the victim of deceptive, misleading, or unlawful conduct, file a complaint with my office at http://oag.ca.gov/report.”
The post also featured a video in which Bonta said, “California has strong laws in place protecting reproductive freedom.”
Meanwhile, though, Bonta is championing the use of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol. When Walmart and CVS Pharmacy said they would carry the abortion pills after the FDA weakened restrictions on their use, Bonta issued a press release praising their decision. “To millions of Americans, mifepristone and misoprostol aren’t just a prescription medication, they are a protection, a lifeline, a key to a healthier and better future.”
He went on to say,
“Do not be deterred by anti-abortion states trying to curtail reproductive freedoms — their legal assertions are meritless and their rhetoric is empty. Restricting access to medication abortion does not make people safer: it only forces them to turn to desperate and unsafe measures. It takes away choice and freedom, and endangers people’s lives. California stands proudly with our partners today in full support of protecting and expanding access to reproductive care across the nation.”
Yet this statement ignores what recent court rulings have concluded. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, for example, found that the Food and Drug Administration relied on faulty data both to approve the pills and to ease restrictions on them.
According to one OBGYN, the abortion pill regimen either injures or causes complications, including infection, excruciating pain, or hemorrhage, in 20 percent of the women who take it. These issues require trips to the emergency room where doctors are forced to finish the abortion and stop the bleeding.
Some women have even died as a result, including, as reported in early February, a 19-year-old Canadian woman who succumbed to septic shock.
Obviously, the pills also result in the death of the child — a child that can be as far along as 12 weeks’ gestation.
There’s an old adage that says it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. What could be a more important decision than changing her mind to keep her baby? And what could be more cruel than not only denying her that ability while there’s still a chance but also forcing her to continue the pill regimen until the baby dies and then to endure the pain and grief of expelling the body of her dead child?
If Bonta is so concerned about women having access to reproductive freedom and all their options, and if he’s so concerned about the safety of women, why is he trying to take away their ability to possibly reverse an abortion through the safe administering of progesterone while championing abortion drugs that the FDA improperly approved and can lead to life-threatening consequences?
Pro-abortion activists have been waging war on pro-lifers for years now, whether that be through legislation claiming that they lie to and harm women, trying to censor search results surrounding clinics, slandering them, eliminating options for women, or through violence and vandalism.
This lawsuit is just another attempt to characterize abortion as normal and healthy and to smear motherhood and the pro-life cause as somehow anti-woman and unscientific.
Hopefully, the judge in this case will recognize the fallacy and cruelty of the Attorney General’s position and dismiss this lawsuit.
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