A district court permanently blocked Colorado from enforcing a state law that bans abortion pill reversal services against a Catholic healthcare clinic.
The Friday order allows Bella Health and Wellness clinic, along with a pro-life nurse practitioner who intervened in the lawsuit, to continue helping women who want to try to reverse a medication abortion in its early stages. Judge Daniel Domenico ruled that the state burdened plaintiffs’ religious exercise and specifically targeted pro-life pregnancy centers in passing the law.
“Motivated by what everyone in this case acknowledges is sincere religious belief, Plaintiffs provide medical services to pregnant women through what they consider ‘crisis pregnancy centers.’ The Colorado legislature, however, passed a bill in April 2023 targeting what it calls “anti-abortion centers,” including Plaintiffs’,” wrote Domenico, an appointee of President Donald Trump. “It is not disputed that by effectively prohibiting them from using a particular treatment for pregnant women, this law burdened Plaintiffs’ sincerely held religious beliefs and required the Defendants to satisfy the demands of strict scrutiny.”
“…[W]hile the clinical efficacy of abortion pill reversal remains debatable, nobody has been injured by the treatment and a number of women have successfully given birth after receiving it,” he continued. “The Defendants have thus failed to show that they have a compelling interest in regulating this practice, and Plaintiffs’ motion must therefore be granted to the extent it seeks a permanent injunction allowing them to continue offering the treatment.”
The abortion pill reversal protocol is a method often used by pro-life pregnancy clinics to attempt to reverse a medication abortion in its early phase.
A medication abortion is typically completed through a two-drug regimen within the first ten weeks of pregnancy. The first drug, mifepristone, blocks the action of the hormone progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The second drug, called misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus. Medication abortions accounted for approximately 63 percent of abortions in the United States in 2023.
Proponents of the abortion pill reversal protocol say a woman may attempt to reverse her medication abortion after taking mifepristone, but before taking misoprostol, with providers prescribing the hormone progesterone in an attempt to overcome the progesterone-blocking effects of the mifepristone and maintain the pregnancy.
In 2023, Colorado passed a first-of-its-kind bill, SB23-190, making it “unprofessional conduct” for healthcare professionals to offer women progesterone when seeking to reverse the effects of the first abortion pill. The founders of Bella Health and Wellness, Catholic mother and daughter nurse practitioners Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the law and alleging that it violates their First Amendment religious and speech rights.
Bella Health’s attorneys stated in their original complaint that “as a matter of conscience, Bella and its providers cannot refuse to help a woman who desires to continue her pregnancy simply because she took mifepristone.”
“Consistent with their core religious beliefs in human dignity, Bella and its providers are religiously obligated to offer abortion pill reversal so long as they have the means and ability to do so,” the complaint states.
The state contended, citing its own experts and pro-abortion major medical industry bodies, that abortion pill reversal is unproven, ineffective, potentially unsafe, and relies on incomplete research.
Domenico pointed out that Colorado allows the broad off-label usage of progesterone for many purposes in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as for in vitro fertilization and “sex changes.”
“Overall, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Plaintiffs’ use of progesterone is not being regulated neutrally—it is being singled out,” he wrote. “Defendants’ application of [the law] must therefore satisfy strict scrutiny. Defendants have not carried their burden to show that its stated interests can survive this exacting inspection.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented Bella, alleged that the clinic has “successfully helped numerous women continue their pregnancies, resulting in the birth of at least 16 babies since the case began.”
“Colorado tried to deprive pregnant women of the life-affirming care that is best for them and their babies,” Chism and Sinnett said in a statement celebrating the ruling. “We are overjoyed that the court has recognized our constitutional right to continue offering this support to the many women who come to our clinic seeking help.”
Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Chelsea Mynyk, a licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife who intervened in the lawsuit, also released a statement praising the ruling. Mynyk, who runs a clinic called Castle Rock Women’s Health, believes that she is compelled by her faith to provide abortion pill reversal to women who request it. She joined the lawsuit after she received a letter from Colorado State Board of Nursing in February 2024 notifying her that she was being investigated due to an anonymous complaint about her provision of abortion pill reversal.
“Government officials can’t silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives,” ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said.
“Many women regret their chemical abortions, and some choose to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug, which can save their baby’s life. But Colorado’s law wrongly attempted to deny women the freedom to make that choice,” Theriot continued. “The court is right to rule that the state can’t force women to follow through with a chemical abortion when a safe alternative is available—one that Chelsea and the pro-life plaintiffs in this case can skillfully provide.”
The order narrowly applies to Mynyk and Bella Health and Wellness, with Domenico citing the Supreme Court’s Trump v. CASA ruling cracking down on lower courts issuing broad-sweeping injunctions.
He wrote:
At the outset it is worth noting that the parties sometimes frame the relief in this case as seeking an injunction against SB 23-290 itself, or sections thereof. But to be clear, my authority is limited to adjudicating disputes between the parties before me, and I have no freestanding power to enjoin laws beyond my power to enjoin parties responsible for enforcing them. I therefore emphasize that any injunction in this case covers enforcement actions against the Plaintiffs, not the law itself.
Colorado has 30 days to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Colorado is one of nine states [and Washington D.C.] that allow abortion throughout pregnancy.
The case is Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser, No. 1:23-cv-939 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
Read the full article here