New York state sues group over abortion pill reversal claims
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 [May 07, 2024]
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -New York state's top prosecutor on Monday sued Heartbeat
International, an anti-abortion group, and 11 crisis pregnancy centers,
accusing them of misleading and potentially endangering women by
claiming that they can provide a treatment reversing the effect of the
abortion pill mifepristone.
In the lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state
court in Manhattan to block Heartbeat International and the centers,
located across New York state and whose mission is to discourage women
from having abortions, from advertising abortion pill reversal on their
websites or anywhere else and award an unspecified amount of money
damages.
"Abortions cannot be reversed," James said in a statement. "Any
treatments that claim to do so are made without scientific evidence and
could be unsafe."
Heartbeat International in a statement called the lawsuit "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."
Mifepristone is the first part of a two-drug regimen used for medication
abortion, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to
terminate pregnancy in the first 10 weeks. Medication abortion accounted
for more than 60% of U.S. abortions last year.
Proponents of medication abortion reversal say mifepristone's effects
can be blocked by a high dose of the hormone progesterone. There are no
controlled clinical trials showing the procedure is safe or effective,
and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that it
is not supported by science.
New York's lawsuit comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case
brought by abortion opponents seeking to restrict the availability of
mifepristone nationwide. One of the plaintiffs in that case, George
Delgado, sits on Heartbeat International's medical advisory board and is
credited with developing abortion pill reversal.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James holds a press conference
following a ruling against former U.S. President Donald Trump
ordering him to pay $354.9 million and barring him from doing
business in New York State for three years, in the Manhattan borough
of New York City, U.S., February 16, 2024. REUTERS/David Dee
Delgado/File Photo
Heartbeat International is an international anti-abortion group
affiliated with more than 2,000 crisis pregnancy centers around the
country. Through its website, it offers to connect women to
providers who will perform abortion pill reversal.
Crisis pregnancy centers provide services to pregnant women with the
goal of preventing them from having abortions. All of the centers
named in James' lawsuit are listed in a directory maintained by HBI,
and nine of them pay the organization an annual fee for affiliate
status, according to the lawsuit.
Some of the centers' websites appeared to offer abortion pill
reversal themselves, while others direct visitors to HBI's "Abortion
Pill Rescue Network," according to James' complaint.
California's attorney general filed a similar lawsuit against HBI
and crisis pregnancy center affiliates last September.
Last October, a federal judge ruled that Colorado cannot ban
abortion pill reversal treatment. Later that month, a judge in
Kansas blocked a state law that would have required healthcare
providers to tell patients that medication abortion can be reversed.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Leslie Adler)
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