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CV NEWS FEED // Ten scientists whose research on the dangers of abortion pills was withdrawn from an academic journal have filed a petition in a California court, asking for the court to force the publisher of the journal to engage in arbitration to resolve the issue.
CatholicVote reported in February that Sage Publications removed three scientific studies from one of its medical journals after receiving an anonymous complaint that the researchers were affiliated with the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.
According to the petition, Sage’s publishing agreements require the researchers to arbitrate with the organization in order to challenge the decision. However, Sage has not complied.
“Instead of cooperating, Sage has engaged in a months-long campaign of cat-and-mouse negotiations apparently designed to delay arbitration and pressure the Authors into waiving their discovery rights as a condition of arbitrating,” the petition states.
In addition to removing the articles, Sage also removed one of the authors, Dr. James Studnicki, from the editorial board of the medical journal in which the articles had originally been published.
According to a news release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the nonprofit law firm representing the scientists, one of the articles was cited by a federal court “in a ruling challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its reckless removal of safety standards for abortion drugs.”
CatholicVote additionally reported that the articles would have been presented before the Supreme Court in summer 2024 in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a case which ultimately resulted in the Court’s upholding of access to abortion drug mifepristone.
ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler called Sage’s actions out in the ADF news release.
“Politics should never sway science, especially when that science is vital for saving and protecting lives,” he wrote. “Sage punished these highly respected and credentialed scientists simply because they believe in preserving life from conception to natural death.”
Sechler continued, “These actions have caused irreparable harm to the authors of these articles, and we are urging Sage to come to the arbitration table — as it is legally bound to do — rescind the retractions and remedy the reputational damage the researchers have suffered at the hands of abortion lobbyists.”
