New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit on Monday against an anti-abortion organization and 11 crisis pregnancy centers in the Empire State for promoting highly controversial abortion pill reversal protocols.
In the lawsuit, James accuses Heartbeat International and Crisis Pregnancy Centers Inc. of using false and misleading claims to attempt to convince pregnant patients who have taken the first abortion pill, mifepristone, to reverse their abortion by taking a high dose of the hormone progesterone.
“Abortions cannot be reversed. Any treatments that claim to do so are made without scientific evidence and could be unsafe,” James said in a press statement. “Amid the increase in attacks on reproductive health care nationwide, we must protect pregnant people’s right to make safe, well-informed decisions about their health.”
Medication abortion works by taking two different chemicals, mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone is a progesterone-blocking agent that essentially cuts off biological support from the mother to the developing fetus. Within 24 to 48 hours of taking mifepristone, the abortion patient is instructed to take four misoprostol pills to induce contractions to expel the fetal remains and other pregnancy tissue.
Anti-abortion organizations, including the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, support the mifepristone abortion reversal protocol of ingesting a high dose of natural progesterone.
However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a group that supports abortion rights, condemns abortion reversal as “unproven and unethical” due to a lack of scientific studies showing the efficacy of the protocols.
A 2012 study that was not reviewed by a human-subjects ethics committee found that four of the six pregnant women who took progesterone after mifepristone continued their pregnancies. Subsequent studies that were more closely monitored for safety and efficacy were canceled due to ethical and safety concerns.
Another study conducted in 2016 demonstrated very low success of abortion reversal, depending upon the gestational age and the time between the progesterone and original mifepristone dose.
Despite the dearth of scientific study support, AAPLOG argues that the use of progesterone to reverse mifepristone is “a simple application of common sense.”
“Using natural progesterone to reverse mifepristone effects is a logical extension of understanding the biochemical mechanism of action of mifepristone,” an AAPLOG guidance on the reversal protocol reads.
Anti-abortion organizations also cite the comparatively small sample of women who choose abortion reversal as a reason for the limited scientific support for the theoretical treatment protocol.
A spokesperson for Heartbeat International told the Washington Examiner that the lawsuit is “a clear attempt to censor speech, leaving women who regret their chemical abortions in the dark, and ultimately forcing them to complete an abortion they no longer want.”
“By singling out these organizations solely because they offer an alternative to abortion, she is not only violating their rights but also denying women access to care and support as they seek to try and continue their pregnancies,” the spokesperson of James’s lawsuit said.
James said that she aimed to protect patients.
“Your reproductive health care decisions are yours and yours alone, and my office will always protect New Yorkers from those who push a scientifically unproven and potentially life-threatening intervention,” James said.
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Access to mifepristone has been under the microscope amid legal challenges to the Food and Drug Administration’s deregulation of the abortion agent during the COVID-19 pandemic, removing requirements for patients to be examined physically by a physician prior to administration of the pill.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments about the FDA’s approval of the drug in March. A decision in the case is expected in June.
