PASADENA, Calif. – On behalf of a nonprofit pro-life pregnancy center and a nonprofit network of affiliated centers, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed an appeal Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Bonta to protect the centers’ right to inform women about how supplemental progesterone can reverse the effects of abortion drugs.
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, along with SCV Pregnancy Center in Santa Clarita, are asking the court to halt California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s censorship of pro-life pregnancy centers that inform women about the option of progesterone therapy to reverse the effects of taking mifepristone—the first drug in the two-drug chemical abortion regimen—and potentially save their unborn babies’ lives. This procedure is commonly known as “abortion pill reversal.” Pregnancy centers wish to share that it may be possible to counteract mifepristone’s lethal effects if they change their minds and seek treatment within 72 hours of taking the first drug. But their scientifically backed speech about the treatment is chilled by the attorney general’s censorship campaign against similar speech.
“Access to information is a hallmark of a free society and is essential to making informed medical choices,” said ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton. “Every woman should have the option to reconsider going through with a chemical abortion, and the pro-life pregnancy centers we represent truthfully inform women about that choice. We urge the court to affirm the pregnancy centers’ freedom to tell the public about this lawful, life-saving treatment and end the attorney general’s censorship.”
In September 2023, Bonta sued Heartbeat International, a national network of pregnancy centers, and RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics, a chain of five pregnancy centers in California, for publishing information about abortion pill reversal, including that progesterone therapy is considered safe and can be an effective treatment. Bonta’s politically motivated lawsuit threatens other pregnancy centers in the state that have made, or would like to make, similar statements, so ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of NIFLA and SCV. A federal district court denied the pregnancy centers’ original motion to stop the censorship while the case continues, prompting the appeal to the 9th Circuit.
“Progesterone therapy offers these women hope and their babies a second chance at life,” the appeal explains. “No one knows this better than Atoria Foley and Desirae Exendine, California mothers who immediately regretted taking mifepristone and frantically sought an alternative to completing their chemical abortions. After searching for terms like ‘abortion pill reversal,’ Atoria and Desirae were connected with a NIFLA-member pregnancy center with an OBGYN on staff who ran diagnostics, obtained informed consent, and proscribed progesterone treatment for free. The treatment worked: Atoria gave birth to a healthy daughter, and Desirae to a healthy son.”
Progesterone is a natural hormone needed to sustain pregnancy and has been used for decades to prevent miscarriage and preterm labor. Statistics show that abortion pill reversal has likely saved over 6,000 unborn lives and one study found a 64-68% success rate. Yet Bonta has targeted centers that tell women about this option because of the centers’ pro-life viewpoints and the content of their speech, which ADF attorneys argue is a violation of First Amendment rights.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
# # #
