Life Legal is filing an amicus curiae brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case of NIFLA v. Letitia James. At issue is the right of pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) to promote a protocol, rapidly increasing in popularity, for reversing the abortion pill mifepristone and thus saving a threatened baby’s life.
New York Attorney General Letitia James targeted PRCs – and their presentation of abortion pill reversal (APR) as an option – on the dubious stated grounds that APR, and not the abortion pill itself, constituted a grave risk to the health of mothers involved. In effect, she sought to prevent pro-life centers from mentioning APR. PRCs sued in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York and won a preliminary injunction that enabled them to continue recommending the procedure.
Dismissing the perspicacity of the district court, AG James, an abortion enthusiast if there ever was one, filed an appeal. Our amicus brief supports the preliminary injunction against James’s attempts to stifle speech and prevent abortion pill reversal.
The abortifacient drug mifepristone starves a developing human child to death by blocking the hormone progesterone, which enables a pregnant woman’s body to nourish her growing passenger. APR works by administering enough supplemental progesterone to overwhelm the inhibition imposed by mifepristone. The chemical agent used in APR is thus simply a natural hormone, and arguably safer than the highly artificial drug that it counteracts. Progesterone can on no honest account be labeled a poison.
Reality rarely intrudes, however, on the thought processes of abortion ideologues. Given her power and practiced disregard for the free speech of others, it was probably inevitable that Letitia James would want to throttle pro-life care centers for mentioning APR.
Life Legal’s brief in support of the preliminary injunction presents a thorough and multifaceted argument. Naturally, we argue from the PRC’s First Amendment right to discuss the APR protocol. But we also argue from the mother’s First Amendment right to hear about the procedure. We emphasize that the public interest is served by presenting an opportunity to stave off regret and possible mental health consequences from a chemical abortion. We highlight the vital function served by PRCs for women facing unplanned pregnancies.
In addition, we directly address Letitia James’s contention that APR constitutes a threat to the mother’s health – and prove that even the sketchy sources she cites to back this contention do not in fact say what she claims. And we do not hesitate to express deep suspicion concerning James’s motivations, given her political commitment to the abortion industry and demonstrated animus against pro-lifers and the help they provide.
We at Life Legal have not been reticent about the expanding role of chemical abortion in the child-killing syndicate. In 2023, chemical means were used to effect 63 percent of all recorded abortions – and, because not all abortions are recorded, the actual percentage is quite likely higher. It was also in 2023 that we scored a significant victory against the chemical abortion racket with a qui tam action that cost mifepristone profiteer Danco Laboratories more than $750,000 in fines.
The prevalence and easy availability of chemical abortifacients is bad news. But abortion pill reversal provides more than a little countervailing good news. Records show that over 5,000 babies have been saved through APR. Even saving one of those babies would justify all the efforts of pro-life PRCs nationwide and all the labors of pro-life attorneys to keep PRCs in operation. But 5,000? That total constitutes a victory indeed.
Life Legal is delighted at this moment to be part of the good news.
- Please pray for children in the womb menaced by chemical abortion!
- Please pray for mothers who change their minds about endingtheir child’s life!
- Please pray for pro-life centers that provide APR and other assistance to women in need!
- Please pray for the success of Life Legal’s brief and for all our vital pro-life work!