The state of Colorado will pay $6.1 million in attorney fees and court costs in a settlement ending a lawsuit against the state’s abortion pill reversal ban. In August 2025, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction preventing Colorado from using the ban to prosecute two Christian health care providers. The settlement signals that Colorado will not appeal the verdict.

On April 21, 2023, the Colorado legislature passed SB 190, a law that prohibited physicians from prescribing a naturally occurring hormone, progesterone, to reverse the effects of the chemical abortion pill, mifepristone. Despite medical evidence showing that abortion pill reversal could save the lives of some unborn babies, the state of Colorado found that it constituted a “deceptive trade practice.” SB 190 explicitly targeted “anti-abortion centers, also known as ‘crisis pregnancy centers,’” which it described as “the ground-level presence of a well-coordinated anti-choice movement.”

The very same day, Becket Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, two nurses employed at Bella Health and Wellness, a Catholic pro-life clinic in the Denver area. Since they showed that a woman came to them that very same day requesting abortion pill reversal, the judge granted them an emergency temporary restraining order.

The Christian health care providers challenged the law on free exercise and free speech grounds, citing their moral obligation to save the unborn babies of mothers who regretted taking the abortion pill. “Although Colorado claims to recognize the ‘fundamental right to continue a pregnancy,’” said the complaint, SB 190 “actively thwarts women from making that choice, and makes it illegal for nurses and doctors to assist them or even inform them about their options.” And yet “no public health goal is served.”

The Colorado attorney general’s office seemed reluctant to defend the law from the very beginning. Instead of defending the law, they promised the judge in late April that they would not enforce the law until state agencies produced implementing regulations. “We do think it’s very telling [that], when presented the opportunity to defend the law that the state had just passed, the state chose to run away,” said Becket Fund Senior Counsel Rebekah Ricketts.

On October 21, 2023, federal district judge Daniel Domenico issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Colorado’s abortion pill reversal ban against Bella Health.

In early 2024, a second Christian pro-life clinic intervened to join the lawsuit. Chelsea Mynyk, a licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife, received a February 2024 notice from the state Board of Nursing informing her that she was under investigation based on an anonymous complaint of her providing abortion pill reversal at Castle Rock Women’s Health, a pro-life clinic she operates. She moved to intervene in the Bella Health case, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Colorado’s abortion pill reversal ban “singles out those women [who] have regret,” argued ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, “and doesn’t allow them … to receive this progesterone, which is a drug that’s been used for over 50 years to stop miscarriage. Chelsea herself has proven that it definitely increases the chances that moms like Mackenna [Greene] can save their babies.”

The law “really doesn’t make any sense unless you see it from the perspective of this radical abortion lobby that says that we want women to have access to abortion, and we don’t think they should be able to change their minds,” Theriot added.

The two pro-life clinics triumphed on August 1, 2025, when the judge ruled that Colorado’s ban on abortion pill reversal discriminated against their free exercise of religion, and that the state failed to prove a compelling interest in doing so. As a result, the judge issued a permanent injunction against any Colorado officials “taking any enforcement action … against Plaintiffs and all those acting in concert with them based on their provision of abortion pill reversal treatment.”

After this ruling, Becket Fund and ADF sued to recover legal costs from the state, as required by federal law. In parallel settlements, Colorado agreed to pay $5.4 million in fees to Becket Fund and $700,000 to ADF, for a total of $6.1 million. Signatures on the ADF settlement are dated to December 19 and 22 of 2025, although both ADF and Becket did not announce the settlement until January 6, 2026. The Colorado attorney general’s office confirmed to the Colorado Sun that the state had reached a settlement.

In a parting shot at Colorado’s law, Ricketts argued that the lawsuit itself illustrated how abortion pill reversal can save the lives of unborn babies. “At least 18 moms who received abortion pill reversal care at Bella just celebrated Christmas with babies born during this case,” she said. “All Coloradans should celebrate those little miracles and the brave medical team at Bella that helped their moms when no one else would.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, remarked, “Praise God that the state of Colorado is being held accountable for their unconstitutional effort to outlaw abortion pill reversal. Every single life is precious, and the abortion pill reversal gives many moms who immediately regret taking the abortion pill a chance to save their unborn child’s life. Every American should be promoting abortion pill reversal, not seeking to prevent moms from learning it’s a possibility.”