A federal court in Colorado on Aug. 1 issued an order permanently blocking a state law that prevents medical professionals from providing women abortion pill reversal treatment.

In April 2023, Colorado enacted a law that prohibits doctors and nurses from providing abortion pill reversal, a safe and often effective treatment for women who change their minds about chemical abortion and wish to reverse the effects of the first chemical abortion drug and save the life of the unborn child.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represented licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife Chelsea Mynyk in her successful intervention in the case Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sued Colorado on behalf of Bella Health and Wellness, a pro-life pregnancy center, in April 2023 and secured a preliminary injunction, preventing Colorado’s law from being enacted while the lawsuit continued. But the injunction applied only to Bella Health and Wellness.

Meanwhile, Mynyk, who operates Castle Rock Women’s Health, has been under investigation since February 2024 by the Colorado State Board of Nursing. Like Bella Health and Wellness, Mynyk believes that she is compelled by her faith to provide abortion pill reversal to women who request it.

In its latest ruling the court stated: “It is not disputed that by effectively prohibiting them from using a particular treatment for pregnant women, this law burdened Plaintiffs’ sincerely held religious beliefs. … [W]hile the clinical efficacy of abortion pill reversal remains debatable, nobody has been injured by the treatment and a number of women have successfully given birth after receiving it.”

Chemical abortion involves taking mifepristone and following it with treatment of misoprostol days later, but pregnancy clinics have helped expectant mothers who change their minds and want to continue the pregnancy to do so by replacing the second drug with doses of progesterone within a given timeframe.

Progesterone is a natural hormone needed to sustain pregnancy and has been used for decades to prevent miscarriage and forestall preterm labor safely and effectively. 

“Government officials can’t silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “Many women regret their chemical abortions, and some choose to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug, which can save their baby’s life. But Colorado’s law wrongly attempted to deny women the freedom to make that choice. The court is right to rule that the state can’t force women to follow through with a chemical abortion when a safe alternative is available—one that Chelsea and the pro-life plaintiffs in this case can skillfully provide.”

Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett, co-founders of Bella Health and Wellness, said the federal court’s ruling is a victory for women’s healthcare and preborn babies.

“Colorado tried to deprive pregnant women of the life-affirming care that is best for them and their babies,” Chism and Sinnett said in a joint statement. “We are overjoyed that the court has recognized our constitutional right to continue offering this support to the many women who come to our clinic seeking help.”

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