A federal judge has blocked New York Attorney General Letitia James from taking legal action against pro-life pregnancy centers that promote the use of progesterone to reverse the abortion pill process, citing the threat to their free speech rights.
U.S. District Judge John Sinatra granted Thursday the temporary injunction sought by the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and two of its members — Gianna’s House and Options Care Center — which filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Ms. James in May.
“Absent an injunction, Plaintiffs are harmed each day they are forced to give up their Constitutional right to speak freely,” said Judge Sinatra, a Trump appointee. “The Attorney General’s equitable counterweights, if any, are insufficient to deny relief on this record.”
The nonprofit pregnancy centers sued shortly after Ms. James launched a civil enforcement action against Heartbeat International and 11 of its faith-based pregnancy centers in New York, accusing them of spreading “false and misleading” advertising by promoting abortion-pill reversals, or APR.
The state action had a chilling effect on other pro-life crisis centers that offer the procedure, in which a woman who has taken the first pill in the two-pill chemical-abortion protocol — but then changes her mind — is prescribed progesterone.
The New York attorney general’s office has accused the centers of deceptive advertising, insisting that it is impossible to reverse an abortion, while pro-life advocates argue that the use of progesterone has successfully saved thousands of pregnancies.
“@NIFLA, Gianna’s House, and Options Care Center are suing @NewYorkStateAG @TishJames for abusing her authority by censoring #prolife pregnancy centers because they tell women about the option of using progesterone for abortion pill reversal.” #Lawfarehttps://t.co/sSAw0BDnb1
— New York Families Action (@NYFamilyAction) August 22, 2024
Judge Sinatra, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, said the pro-life organizations are likely to succeed on the merits of their free-speech claims.
“The First Amendment protects Plaintiffs’ right to speak freely about APR protocol, and more specifically, to say that it is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use in consultation with her doctor,” he said in the 36-page ruling.
The Alliance Defending Freedom said the order means that the pro-life facilities “will now be able to inform women who have taken the first abortion drug that the possibility exists to counteract the drug’s lethal effects, and the attorney general is prohibited from censoring them for providing that information.”
ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton said that pregnant women “should have the option to reconsider an abortion.”
“Women in New York have literally saved their babies from an in-progress chemical drug abortion because they had access to information through their local pregnancy centers about using safe and effective progesterone for abortion pill reversal,” Mr. Dalton said. “But the attorney general tried to deny women the opportunity to even hear about this life-saving option.”
The Washington Times has reached out to the New York Attorney General’s office for comment.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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