Trial begins in California case challenging the advertising of abortion pill reversal

A California Superior Court in Alameda County on Wednesday heard opening arguments in a case brought by state Attorney General Rob Bonta against Heartbeat International and a Bay Area pregnancy center owned by RealOptions Inc. The attorney general is seeking nearly $20 million in fines from Heartbeat International over its promotion of abortion pill reversal, through its Abortion Pill Rescue Network. In the first case of its kind to go to trial, the court will have to decide if Heartbeat’s claims about the technique’s success amount to false advertising. While Bonta is not aiming to ban the practice of abortion pill reversal itself, he is trying to stop pro-life organizations from discussing the option with women. But pro-lifers say their speech is protected and that a victory for the attorney general could silence speech about options for women who regret initiating a chemical abortion.

What is abortion pill reversal? Since 2012, pro-life doctors have given high doses of the hormone progesterone to mothers who are in the first trimester of pregnancy and have taken mifepristone, the first drug in the chemical abortion regimen. More than 60% of women who take the progesterone as directed have successfully saved their unborn babies, according to the Thomas More Society, which is representing Heartbeat. The pro-life nonprofit says the protocol has saved more than 8,000 babies. Meanwhile, the state has not received a single consumer complaint about abortion pill reversal or produced evidence that the regimen is unsafe, according to the society.

Why does Bonta say it is misleading? In his lawsuit, Bonta pointed to a 2019 study conducted by abortionist Mitchell Creinin that suggested using progesterone to reverse the effects of mifepristone may be dangerous and ineffective. Creinin enrolled 12 pregnant women who all took mifepristone. Two women quickly dropped out of the study after experiencing heavy bleeding and five of the remaining 10 took progesterone. Of those five, four of their babies still had a heartbeat after two weeks. In a January deposition as part of the case, Creinin said that progesterone most likely would not hurt a pregnant woman or her baby, said that he could not firmly state that abortion pill reversal does not work, and admitted that he has been a consultant for abortion drugmaker Danco Laboratories for decades.

Dig deeper: Read my report in Vitals for more details about the case and a similar lawsuit playing out in New York.