Legal Group Fights Letitia James’ Attempt to Shut Down Pro-Life Pregnancy Center

Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. James, a case where New York Attorney General Letitia James is attempting to silence pro-life pregnancy centers from advertising progesterone therapy as a means to reverse the abortion drug Mifepristone, a treatment known as “abortion pill reversal” (APR). In August 2024, a federal judge blocked the state from using business fraud laws to target 11 pro-life pregnancy centers simply for promoting that an abortion in progress can be safely reversed.

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Liberty Counsel argues this “weaponization” of fraud statutes to censor pregnancy centers is viewpoint-based discrimination and an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. Liberty Counsel, which has represented other pro-life pregnancy centers in different cases, submitted the brief to help these organizations retain the freedom and autonomy to offer life-saving medical aid for children in the womb, including the right to speak and promote APR.

While AG James claims APR is “unproven” and has accused many pregnancy centers of fraudulent business practices and false advertising, District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. stated that restricting speech about APR “casts a chill” on the First Amendment. He ruled that New York pregnancy centers have a right “to speak freely about [the] APR protocol.”

Despite many of the pregnancy centers offering the APR protocol for free, AG James is appealing that decision maintaining that “someone must bear the cost,” and therefore, speech involving APR is commercial speech which can be regulated by business laws. However, in a May 2024 press release, AG James revealed her viewpoint claiming advertisements for APR contained “misinformation” and that “abortions cannot be reversed.” Yet, statistics show that the APR protocol has likely saved more than 6,000 unborn babies with a success rate of up to 64-68 percent.

“The context makes clear that [AG James] is engaging in both content- and viewpoint-based discrimination,” wrote Liberty Counsel. “She rejects [pro-life pregnancy centers’] speech because it attempts to save unborn children and it projects a Christian, and therefore pro-life, worldview that [she] rejects.”

In the brief, Liberty Counsel noted the state’s effort to restrict APR advertising is a move to eliminate a mother’s choice to save her baby. While the state allows the choice to seek an abortion, it wants mothers to lose any choice to save their babies after they have taken Mifepristone.

“This ‘limit of choices’ veiled as freedom, is yet another case wherein the government attempts to permanently degrade First Amendment protections due to political disagreements regarding the sanctity of human life,” wrote Liberty Counsel. “That is a clear violation of [pro-life pregnancy centers’] First Amendment rights.”

The APR protocol uses progesterone, a safe and naturally occurring hormone that has been used safely and effectively for decades to prevent miscarriage and preterm labor. Progesterone can potentially reverse the effects of the abortion pill Mifepristone if a woman changes her mind within 72 hours after taking the drug. Mifepristone starves the baby to death by blocking the naturally-occurring progesterone that helps a woman’s body sustain the baby. The APR protocol consists of giving extra progesterone within 72 hours to “outnumber and outcompete” the abortion drug so the baby can survive.

According to Dr. William Lile, who is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and who has delivered thousands of babies, progesterone is “bio-identical” and “as natural as it can possibly be” to what a pregnant woman produces. Dr. Lile told Liberty Counsel that he has personally reversed the abortion pill 15 out of 19 times (a 78 percent success rate) and that abortion pill reversal protocol has safely reversed Mifepristone thousands of times across the nation.

More information about reversing the abortion pill can be viewed here.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The abortion pill reversal protocol gives a woman a chance to save her unborn baby by safely reversing an abortion. The government does not have the power to chill the free speech of pregnancy center staff and take away a woman’s option to safely stop an abortion. New York’s attempt to censor life-saving treatment by weaponizing business fraud laws is blatantly unconstitutional and should be permanently struck down.”

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