Colorado Supreme Court building by Riverwalker / stock.adobe.com
A Colorado district court struck down a state law Aug. 1 that banned medical professionals from providing pregnant women with abortion pill reversal treatment, allowing a Christian nurse to practice medicine in accordance with her pro-life beliefs.
CatholicVote previously reported that the 2023 law prohibited Chelsea Mynyk, a licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife, from giving women access to abortion pill reversal. According to a news release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the nonprofit legal organization that represented Mynyk in court, the reversal option is “a safe and often effective treatment for women who change their minds about chemical abortion.”
In February 2024, the Colorado State Board of Nursing told Mynyk she was under investigation for possibly violating the Nurse Practice Act by offering abortion pill reversal services, prompting her to then intervene in an ongoing lawsuit, Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser. Bella Health and Wellness, a Catholic pro-life healthcare clinic, had already secured a preliminary injunction from the court that allowed its pro-life medical professionals to provide abortion pill reversals while the lawsuit played out. However, the injunction only applied to the organization, not to other pro-life health care providers.
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That changed Aug. 1 when District Judge Daniel Domenico issued a permanent injunction that authorizes both Mynyk and Bella Health and Wellness to practice medicine according to their pro-life values. According to the Denver Gazette, while the court order only applies to the two parties, the ruling will likely prompt other health care providers to ask for similar exemptions from the 2023 law.
“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, and required the Defendants to satisfy the demands of strict scrutiny,” Domenico wrote in his ruling.
He explained that that is why the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction was granted in October 2023.
“The evidence they have produced largely confirms that provided at the preliminary injunction stage: while 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,” he wrote. “The Defendants have thus failed to show that they have a compelling interest in regulating this practice” so the court must oblige the plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction.
According to ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, Colorado tried to deny women the chance to choose to save their unborn babies’ lives.
“Government officials can’t silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives,” he stated.
He also said that the law wrongly tried to take away women’s freedom to try to save their baby’s life.
He continued, “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.”
