A federal appeals court sided with a group of pregnancy centers that sued New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) over her attempts to regulate claims about abortion pill reversal, allowing the groups to continue to promote the treatment.
The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower federal district court’s preliminary injunction, which found the pregnancy centers’ statements and promotion of abortion pill reversal treatments are “noncommercial” speech. The ruling argues that the constitutionally protected speech is not subject to the regulation that James has attempted to impose via a lawsuit against several pregnancy centers.
“The district court correctly determined that the speech at issue is noncommercial because, based on the uncontroverted evidence in the current record, the speech is religiously and morally motivated, the NIFLA plaintiffs receive no remuneration or other financial benefit for engaging in it, and, as the NIFLA plaintiffs do not provide [abortion pill reversal] themselves, the speech serves only to provide the public with information about APR and access to third-party providers that can offer APR,” the ruling said.
Abortion pill reversal treatment is a controversial topic, with anti-abortion advocates heralding it as a way of reversing a mifepristone abortion pill by delivering a high dose of progesterone, which mifepristone, typically the first pill in a two-step medication abortion, blocks. Abortion-rights advocates claim that medication abortions cannot be reversed and that such treatment is unproven. James claimed in her lawsuit that pregnancy centers were promoting the treatment, making false and misleading statements about it.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm that helped represent the groups suing James in this case, celebrated the ruling as a victory for advocates seeking to dissuade pregnant women from going forward with an abortion.
“Many women regret their abortions, and some change their minds after taking the first abortion drug and want to try to save their unborn babies’ lives. They should be allowed to hear about this option and make that choice,” ADF Senior Counsel Caroline Lindsay said in a statement.
“The court is correct to affirm that women in New York have the right to access information about safe and effective supplemental progesterone through their local pregnancy centers, regardless of what the attorney general may personally believe. The First Amendment clearly protects the right to speak and hear about this potentially life-saving option,” the statement continued.
TRUMP STARTING TO SEE WINS IN TRANSGENDER COURT BATTLES
The fight over abortion pill reversal treatments is one of several legal battles involving abortion and pregnancy centers that have brewed in the aftermath of the 2022 Dobbs decision, which returned much of abortion law to the states.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case over whether a pregnancy center can challenge the constitutionality of a subpoena from New Jersey, which would require it to reveal some of its donor list.