New York's top prosecutor has filed a lawsuit against Heartbeat International, an anti-abortion group, and 11 crisis pregnancy centers, alleging that they have been misleading and potentially endangering women by claiming to offer treatments that reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone. New York Attorney General Letitia James has requested a state court in Manhattan to block these organizations, which are spread across New York state and are dedicated to discouraging abortions, from advertising abortion pill reversal services on their websites or elsewhere. The lawsuit also seeks unspecified monetary damages.
In a statement, James emphasized, "Abortions cannot be reversed. Any treatments claiming to do so are unsupported by scientific evidence and could be unsafe." Heartbeat International responded to the lawsuit, describing it as an attempt to suppress speech and leaving women who regret their abortions in the dark, potentially forcing them to proceed with an unwanted abortion.
Mifepristone is a key component of medication abortion, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for terminating pregnancies within the first 10 weeks. Medication abortion accounted for more than 60% of all U.S. abortions last year. Advocates for medication abortion reversal argue that mifepristone's effects can be counteracted by a high dose of the hormone progesterone. However, there is no scientific consensus on the safety or efficacy of this procedure, with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stating that it lacks scientific support.
The lawsuit comes at a crucial time as the U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating a case brought by abortion opponents aiming to restrict the availability of mifepristone nationwide. One of the plaintiffs in this case, George Delgado, is a member of Heartbeat International's medical advisory board and is credited with developing abortion pill reversal.
Heartbeat International is an international anti-abortion organization affiliated with more than 2,000 crisis pregnancy centers nationwide. Through its website, it offers to connect women with providers who offer abortion pill reversal services. Crisis pregnancy centers provide support to pregnant women with the goal of dissuading them from having abortions. All the centers mentioned in James' lawsuit are listed in Heartbeat International's directory, with nine of them paying an annual fee for affiliate status.
Some of these centers' websites appear to offer abortion pill reversal services directly, while others redirect visitors to Heartbeat International's "Abortion Pill Rescue Network," as per James' complaint.
A similar lawsuit was filed by California's attorney general against Heartbeat International and its crisis pregnancy center affiliates in September last year. In October, a federal judge ruled against Colorado's ban on abortion pill reversal treatment, and in Kansas, a judge blocked a state law that would have required healthcare providers to inform patients about the possibility of reversing medication abortions.