NY Attorney General, Letitia James, sues pregnancy centers for opposing abortion pill reversal

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has a history of using lawfare to target people who want to protect unborn babies, is furthering her campaign against pro-lifers by suing nearly a dozen pregnancy centers for offering women abortion pill reversals.

In a complaint filed at the beginning of May, James alleged Heartbeat International and 11 pregnancy centers, including one firebombed by abortion terrorists following the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson draft decision, made “false and misleading statements” about life-saving treatments used to reverse attempted abortions induced by mifepristone. She said that offering women who decided they did not want to complete their chemical abortions a safe way out amounts to “fraud, deceptive business practices, and false advertising under New York law.”

The timing of James’ lawsuit is no coincidence. She not only sued the defendants in question after they sued for relief from her “politically motivated campaign,” but she also timed the lawsuit to make headlines as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) likely violated the law when it approved abortion pills, which are responsible for more than half of the nation’s abortions, for mail order and other expansions.

“Based on NY AG Letitia James’ irresponsible record of protecting big abortion, it appears that her lawsuit against us is a smokescreen to obscure the rampant malpractice and fraud that is the chemical abortion industry ahead of an anticipated June Supreme Court decision on that very subject,” CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden said in a statement.

James also falsely claimed abortion pill reversal (APR) is not “backed by science and does not meet clinical standards” because the “only clinical trial conducted to evaluate APR had to be halted due to concerns about patient safety.”

Several studies have determined that increasing intramuscular and high-dose oral progesterone in women who ingest the abortion drug regimen and regret it is “safe and effective” and resulted in “no apparent increased risk of birth defects.”

James is correct that the University of California, Davis researchers who conducted a 2019 study on abortion pill reversal canceled their work, citing the “risk to women.” The “risk” in question, however, came after three of the 12 women who took mifepristone, the abortion drug, for the sake of the study “required ambulance transport to a hospital for treatment of severe vaginal bleeding.” Two of them hadn’t ingested any reversal drug.

James’ targeting of pregnancy centers over a life-saving treatment that she says lacks “safety and effectiveness” is ironic given the abortion pill’s proven history of causing dangerous and sometimes fatal complications.

Mifepristone is responsible for a 500 percent increase in abortion-related emergency room visits for side effects such as hemorrhage, “fast, weak pulse,” “shortness of breath,” diarrhea, dizziness, headache, vomiting, “pain” across the back, arms, neck, and abdomen, and myriad other risks. The FDA even admits on the drug’s label that nearly 1 in 25 women who take it will end up in the emergency room or hospitalized.

A peer-reviewed article published this month found that the FDA used “flawed studies with significantly undercounted complications” when it quietly modified its regulation to allow abortion pills via remote prescription, mail-order, and chain pharmacy pickup to accommodate the Biden White House’s post-Roe activism.

“This will increase the risk of complications due to failure to adequately determine the gestational age or rule out ectopic pregnancy by ultrasound or physical exam, failure to perform labs to document whether RhoGAM is indicated, and failure to obtain appropriate informed consent to prevent unwanted abortions, among other concerns,” the article’s authors warn.

As James continues her conquest against pro-lifers and pregnancy centers that give women the hope and support they need to nurture and raise surprise babies, New York is preparing to earmark $36 million of the state’s 2025 budget to advance Democrats’ abortion agenda.

The budget, approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul at the end of April, sets aside $25 million in taxpayer dollars for abortion nonprofits to expand their efforts to kill preborn babies. The governor also appropriated $10 million in security grants to abortion facilities “to help ensure the safety of the providers performing this vital care.”

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-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 Twitter @jordanboydtx.