California bishops warn abortion pill reversal lawsuit could deny women a ‘second chance’

Two California bishops warned that the state’s case against pro-life nonprofits could deprive women of a chance to save their preborn babies after beginning a chemical abortion.

In a July 30 opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Oakland Bishop Michael Barber argued that the case ultimately concerns whether Christian ministries can tell women about abortion pill reversal (APR).

As Zeale News previously reported, California is seeking nearly $20 million in penalties from Heartbeat International and RealOptions, alleging that the nonprofits made misleading claims about APR, a treatment that uses progesterone in an effort to counteract the abortion drug mifepristone.

The bishops questioned whether efforts to silence those ministries were consistent with the “pro-choice” position.

“What kind of people see a pregnant woman who wants to reverse the effects of an abortion pill,” they wrote, “and think, ‘Let’s punish the nonprofits that informed her she has a choice’?” 

“Are they really pro-choice,” they added, “or do they just like killing?”

The bishops highlighted Elizabeth Barrett, who took mifepristone at a Planned Parenthood clinic but soon regretted her decision to abort her child. According to the piece, she found Heartbeat International while searching online for help, began progesterone treatment that day, and later gave birth to a healthy daughter.

The bishops said Barrett’s experience was not isolated.

“To be a Catholic priest these days, as we both are,” they said, “is to have heard many similar stories of women who felt pressured to have an abortion they didn’t want.”

They said California is using the groups’ reliance on donations to classify their message as commercial speech subject to the state’s commercial fraud law. They warned that although doctors could remain free to prescribe APR, a victory for the state could bar nonprofits from telling women it exists, calling the state’s argument “a novel legal theory that would vastly expand lawfare against those who hold views with which the government disagrees.”

The bishops pointed to a similar warning from Michael McConnell, a Stanford professor who teaches free-speech law.

McConnell said the state appeared to be trying to “intimidate nonprofit organizations that — with no hope of commercial gain — seek to educate the public about services that are lawful but contrary to the ideological preferences of the government.”

Beyond their concerns about free speech, the bishops said California Attorney General Rob Bonta had produced no evidence of a complaint from a woman harmed by either pro-life organization. Nevertheless, they wrote, the state was “marshaling its taxpayer-funded resources to shut these ministries down.”

The bishops urged the faithful to support women facing difficult pregnancies and those who regret beginning an abortion.

“These women especially need support from the religious,” they wrote, “those who hold that creation in God’s image means life is endowed with a dignity that can’t be trampled by a government determined to punish those who oppose unquestioned abortion.”