The organization says the state is targeting pro-life clinics over their constitutionally protected speech.
A Catholic, pro-life community health clinic sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta this week in federal court over his efforts to shut down abortion pill reversal services.
The organization is seeking a declaration from the court that abortion pill reversal is lawful and protected by the U.S. Constitution. It is also seeking damages and an injunction against Bonta.
Some pregnant women opt for abortion pill reversal when they change their minds about going through with an abortion after taking one of the two pills required in the medication abortion procedure.
Supporters of the procedure say the unborn baby can be saved if hormones are given to the woman within 24 hours after the first pill has been taken. Critics and pro-abortion activists say the abortion pill reversal procedure is unproven and potentially unsafe.
Medication abortions are reportedly lawful in 36 states and the District of Columbia.
Culture of Life operates three state-licensed community health clinics in San Diego County. The clinics provide family medicine, pediatric medicine, and health care for women, including pregnancy testing, pregnancy options consultations, ultrasounds, prenatal care, and abortion pill reversal treatment.
Bonta is violating First Amendment rights by “targeting protected speech and activities engaged in for the sole benefit of pregnant women who have ingested” abortion medication, the group claims in the lawsuit.
The Epoch Times reached out to Bonta for comment but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
In September 2023, Bonta filed suit in state court against Heartbeat International (HBI), a pro-life group, and RealOptions Obria, which operates five crisis pregnancy centers in Northern California, claiming the two organizations used allegedly fraudulent and misleading claims to promote abortion pill reversal.
The release called abortion pill reversal “an unproven and largely experimental procedure” that “has no credible scientific backing, and has potential risks for patients who undergo it.”
Bonta said those “struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance—not lies and misinformation.”
“And let me be clear: the evidence shows that the vast majority of people do not regret their decision to have an abortion—more than 95 percent of patients who undergo an abortion later say they made the right decision,” he said in the release.
According to Culture of Life’s legal complaint, in June 2022, the same month the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, Bonta issued a “Consumer Alert” counseling women that pregnancy help organizations do not provide abortions. He created a website to allow the public to complain about pregnancy help organizations and a legal hotline for women to call if they felt their reproductive rights had been violated.
In September 2022, Bonta initiated an investigation into pregnancy help organizations across the state. He partnered on legal briefs with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also launched investigations into similar organizations in her home state, the legal complaint states.
The attorney general followed up with an act of “lawfare” the next year when he sued the five pro-life community medical clinics, alleging they participated in fraudulent business practices and misleading advertising by providing abortion pill reversal treatment, the complaint states.
“In a flagrant constitutional overreach, Bonta seeks to prohibit doctors, nurses, or advocacy organizations from helping these women by forbidding them from telling women about a safe and effective treatment that is lawfully available across the country and around the world—‘Abortion Pill Reversal.’”
According to the complaint, Bonta’s efforts violate the U.S. Constitution and Article I, section 1.1 of the California Constitution, which provides that “the state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions.”
Culture of Life’s attorneys at the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm, say Bonta is violating Californians’ rights.
Peter Breen, the society’s executive vice president and head of litigation, said “Abortion Pill Reversal gives these women a second chance to choose life, a choice that Bonta and the abortion industry would strip from her.”