Faith-based health clinic sues over new state law banning abortion pill reversal

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO)-- A Colorado Catholic-based health clinic is challenging a new state law in court.

Senate Bill 190 was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis on Friday. The bill effectively prevents abortion pill reversal from being given to women in the state.

Religious Liberty Attorney Mark Rienzi from Washington D.C. is representing the clinic, Bella Health and Wellness, in the case. He argues the bill will unjustly force women to continue with abortions they want to reverse.

"Getting an abortion is obviously a difficult, complicated decision for many women, and some women change their minds," said Rienzi.

Until now, Bella Health and Wellness and other pregnancy centers in Colorado, have been able to offer abortion pill reversal.

It's a procedure they claim can reverse the effects of an abortion pill like mifepristone, by using the hormone progesterone. Progesterone is frequently used to treat women facing the threat of a miscarriage.

"Colorado's new law makes it illegal to offer progesterone to only one group of women. Those who have changed their mind after taking that first abortion pill."

Senate Bill 190 classifies the administration of progesterone to those hoping to reverse an abortion as 'unprofessional conduct.'

"The nurses and doctors at Bella (Health and Wellness) feel morally obligated if a woman says, 'Hey, I'd like your help to keep my baby,' to say, 'Well, we can help you.'"

So, Bella Health and Wellness is challenging the state’s new abortion-access law in court, arguing it's violating the very right used as the foundation for Senate Bill 190.

In it, it reads, "In Colorado, a pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy or to terminate a pregnancy by abortion."

"I want (women) to have access to accurate, science-based, peer-reviewed and backed, medical-based information," bill sponsor and Democrat Representative Karen McCormick says.

McCormick argues the bill deals with science, adding that the practice of abortion pill reversal has not been clinically supported.

"That does not have that full range of the solid, foundational science that can say, 'yeah, we know what the safety implications are, or the danger implications.' None of that has happened."

McCormick says it's also misleading of providers to promise patients they may be able to reverse the effects of an abortion pill.

"We can't have individual medical providers misleading their patients, too, believing that they're getting something that they are not."

The law states that the state medical board needs to make a decision on whether progesterone can be given off-label to patients by October 1, 2023. Until then, pregnancy resource centers must stop giving out progesterone.