CA AG Sued Over ‘Chilling’ Comments on Abortion Pill Reversal

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s ongoing war against crisis pregnancy centers for offering women a scientifically-backed solution to reverse chemical abortions violates those centers’ constitutional rights, a new lawsuit alleges.

In an Oct. 2 complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief, pregnancy center network National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) demanded the Western Division of California’s Central District Court halt Bonta’s attempt to criminalize advocacy of the lifesaving medication known to reverse chemical abortions because it infringes on its 136 California members’ First and Fourteenth Amendment right to “speak freely, to practice their religion, and to due process under the law.”

“The Constitution protects Plaintiffs’ right to speak to the public and women about lawful medical treatments provided by licensed medical professionals,” the plaintiffs, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, state.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Bonta issued a consumer alert accusing his state’s pregnancy centers of offering only “limited and potentially misleading” care because they gave women seeking alternatives to ending their babies’ lives.

Bonta’s Department of Justice also launched a government web page encouraging Californians who “believe their right to reproductive healthcare, including accessing abortion, has been violated” to report it to his office.

By September 2023, Bonta escalated to suing five of California’s pregnancy centers over what he deemed were “fraudulent and misleading claims to advertise an unproven and largely experimental procedure called ‘abortion pill reversal.’” His actions were already countered in court once by Culture of Life Family Services in July for “targeting protected speech and activities engaged in for the sole benefit of pregnant women who have ingested — whether voluntarily or via trick or force — mifepristone.”

As the October complaint warns, pregnancy centers in the Golden Gate State are now “subject to injunctions, civil penalties of up to $2,500 per ‘violation,’ and potential jail time.”

“The Attorney General says he supports a woman’s right to choose whether to keep her pregnancy, yet he seeks to deprive a woman who changes her mind, or who was coerced or tricked into taking the first abortion drug, of truthful information about a safe and effective way to save her pregnancy,” the lawsuit states.

Bonta’s lawfare, the suit warns, has illegally hampered California-based clinics like the NIFLA-affliated SCV Pregnancy Center from their ability to “advertise and provide services, counseling, and information about progesterone treatment.”

“Access to information is a hallmark of a free society and is essential to making informed medical choices. But California’s attorney general is silencing pregnancy centers and censoring information about life-saving medical options,” ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton said in a statement. “Attorney General Bonta and his allies at Planned Parenthood may not like it, but the truth is that many women regret their abortions, and some seek to stop the effects of chemical abortion drugs before taking the second drug in the abortion drug process. Women deserve to know all their options every step of the way.”

Democrats like Bonta, corporate media, Big Tech, and Planned Parenthood have tried to paint the abortion pill reversal medication as unsafe. Several studies, however, concluded that the intramuscular and high-dose oral progesterone prescribed to women to combat the drug combo responsible for more than half of the nation’s abortions is “safe and effective” and resulted in “no apparent increased risk of birth defects” when taken within the recommended three-day window.

On the contrary, the mifepristone and misoprostol handed to women to induce chemical abortion are known to cause side effects including hemorrhage, “fast, weak pulse,” “shortness of breath,” diarrhea, dizziness, headache, vomiting, “pain” across the back, arms, neck, and abdomen, and sometimes fatal complications. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration admits nearly 1 in 25 women who ingest it will end up in the emergency room or hospitalized.

Abortion pill reversal quite literally saves thousands of unborn babies and their mothers from the deadly consequences of chemical abortion. It is especially beneficial to women who are pressured or forced to ingest abortion pills against their will.

Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, pro-abortion attacks on pregnancy centers have only increased. When physical intimidation campaigns led by violent perpetrators such as a man armed with a machete didn’t discourage pregnancy centers from offering women and unborn babies support and care, the Planned Parenthood-allied Democrats running New Jersey, Washington, Colorado, California, and other states have turned to lawfare.

New York Attorney General Letitia James tried to pull the same stunt Bonta did against pro-lifers in her state by suing nearly a dozen pregnancy centers for offering women abortion pill reversals. A New York District court, however, recently ruled in favor of the pregnancy centers and reaffirmed their promotion of abortion pill reversal counts as protected speech.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.