New York state will no longer censor pro-life organizations recommending the abortion pill reversal medical protocol to pregnant women, in a win for the movement. 

U.S. District Judge John Sinatra of the Western District of New York modified the preliminary injunction in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates et al. v. Letitia James last Friday. The order states the preliminary injunction “shall apply with equal force to NIFLA’s unnamed New York members not subject to the ongoing state enforcement action that (a) do not themselves provide Abortion Pill Reversal (“APR”), and (b) receive no remuneration for APR referrals.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Vice President Ryan Bangert said during an appearance on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that Democratic attorneys general in states like New York have tried to silence pregnancy centers who recommend the abortion pill reversal to expectant mothers. 

“The U.S. Supreme Court definitively said that crisis pregnancy centers have the right to challenge these abusive subpoenas that would force them to disclose the names and identities of their financial contributors under the First Amendment,” he explained. 

“There are efforts being made to silence the voices of these centers. And we have had good success so far defending the rights of these pregnancy resource centers to stay open, to continue to raise money, and to do so without being harassed through subpoenas and through [the] legal process by blue state attorneys general.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued Heartbeat International organization in 2024, alleging the pro-life group spread “false and misleading claims” about medical protocols meant to undo the effects of mifepristone after a pregnant woman ingests it.

“Abortions cannot be reversed. Any treatments that claim to do so are made without scientific evidence and could be unsafe,” James claimed at the time. “Heartbeat International and the other crisis pregnancy center defendants are spreading dangerous misinformation by advertising ‘abortion reversals’ without any medical and scientific proof.”

To reverse an abortion, a woman can take a hormone known as progesterone to counteract the devastating damage caused by mifepristone. Heartbeat International reported 64%-68% of the pregnancies in a 2018 study were saved through abortion pill reversal. 

Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Gabriella McIntyre explained in a press release that regret among women who take mifepristone is not uncommon. “Many women regret their abortions, and some change their minds after taking the first abortion drug and want to try to save their unborn babies’ lives. The district court was right to allow women to hear about this option and make that choice. The New York attorney general has desperately tried to censor and keep women in the dark about abortion-pill reversal, but they have every right to be empowered with information about this potentially life-saving option.”

Bangert added that women deserve to be told all the facts about the treatments available to them when in the process of obtaining a chemical abortion.

“When they realize they don’t want it, when they realize [that] perhaps they’ve been coerced … they absolutely have the right to know what options are available to them,” he emphasized. “Trying to silence and muzzle the voices of pro-life pregnancy centers who want to offer that hope is simply unconscionable.”