More pro-life pregnancy centers have sued New York Attorney General Letitia James over her crackdown on the advertising of abortion-pill reversal treatments, accusing her of waging a “witch-hunt” to chill their constitutionally protected speech.
Two crisis pregnancy organizations — Summit Life Outreach Center and the Evergreen Association — said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that they have refrained from promoting abortion-pill reversals, or APR, since Ms. James threatened in April to sue 11 pro-life centers for business fraud.
Peter Breen, Thomas More Society executive vice president and head of litigation, accused the New York Democrat of conducting “a witch-hunt to silence our pro-life ministries and shut down their constitutionally protected speech about Abortion Pill Reversal.”
“Instead of praise for the compassionate support these pro-life ministries provide to communities in need, Ms. James has answered their selfless service with lawsuits and investigations,” he said in a Thursday statement.
“In doing so, Ms. James flagrantly violates their constitutional rights by using lawfare to silence those who disagree with her,” Mr. Breen said.
Summit Life and Evergreen aren’t alone.
In May, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates also sued Ms. James in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, accusing her of censorship, viewpoint discrimination, and religious discrimination.
The lawsuits come after Ms. James sued Heartbeat International and its 11 state affiliates in May for “spreading dangerous misinformation by advertising ‘abortion reversals’ without any medical and scientific proof” and declaring that “abortions cannot be reversed.”
A completed abortion is irreversible.
But the lawsuit said the two-pill abortion regimen can sometimes be reversed if the pregnant woman changes her mind after taking the first pill, mifepristone, and counters it with doses of progesterone, a hormone also used to stop miscarriages.
🚨 JUST FILED: Thomas More Society is taking Letitia James to federal court in defense of lifesaving pregnancy help organizations in New York. Read our press release here: https://t.co/qOLmhOh1jI pic.twitter.com/eoSRpTGuUt
— Thomas More Society (@ThomasMoreSoc) August 8, 2024
Dr. Matthew Harrison used progesterone to save the pregnancy of a woman named Ashley in 2006, the first known use of the APR protocol, after she took mifepristone and then regretted it.
“A few days later the baby’s heart was still visible on an ultrasound,” said the 38-page lawsuit. “A few months later Ashley delivered a healthy baby girl she named Kaylie and who now is a high school cheerleader with hopes and dreams of her own.”
Pro-life groups estimate that 5,000 pregnancies have been saved by interrupting the two-pill abortion process with progesterone, but Ms. James said there is “a glaring lack of scientific evidence to support APR’s safety and effectiveness.”
“Attorney General James alleges that making false and misleading claims about APR to convince pregnant people to get the treatment constitutes fraud, deceptive business practices, and false advertising under New York law,” said the AG’s office in a May 6 statement.
Mr. Breen said that the attorney general “seeks to steal away a woman’s choice to save her preborn child.”
The pro-life centers asked the court to stop the attorney general’s crackdown on APR advertising, saying it violates the centers’ First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of religion, as well as their Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.
“With this federal lawsuit, we are once again going on the offense to put an end to Ms. James’ attacks on New York’s life-affirming ministries,” Mr. Breen said.
There are an estimated 2,700 U.S. pro-life pregnancy centers, which typically provide free medical services such as pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, as well as free baby clothes, diapers, car seats and counseling.
These centers do not provide abortions or refer women to such clinics. Pro-choice activists say that this means they are misleading pregnant women, which pro-life centers deny.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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