Colorado nurse under investigation for abortion pill reversal treatments takes legal action
Attorneys for a Colorado nurse who says she feels "religiously compelled" to offer abortion pill reversal to women who regret their abortions argue that the state's investigation into her practice violates her First and 14th Amendment rights.
The legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion last Wednesday to allow Chelsea Mynyk to intervene in an ongoing lawsuit, Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser, in defense of her ability to continue providing women with the abortion pill reversal treatment.
Mynyk is a pro-life licensed nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife who runs the Castle Rock Women's Health clinic.
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The abortion pill reversal treatment provides progesterone, a natural hormone necessary for the pregnancy to continue, to women who have changed their minds after taking the first chemical abortion pill in an attempt to save their pregnancies up to a certain point.
Last month, Mynyk received a letter from the Colorado State Board of Nursing saying she is being investigated for a potential violation of the Nurses Practice Act. The letter was the result of an anonymous complaint about Mynyk providing the abortion pill reversal.
"Colorado can't silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives," ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said in a Friday statement provided to The Christian Post.
"Many women regret their abortions, and some choose to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug, often saving their baby's life. But Colorado's law wrongly denies women the freedom to make that choice. The state can't force women to follow through with an abortion when a safe alternative is available — one that Chelsea and the pro-life plaintiffs in this case can skillfully provide."
Colorado enacted SB 23-190 in April 2023, which prohibits doctors and medical professionals from providing abortion pill reversal. The pro-life pregnancy center Bella Health and Wellness sued the state and secured a preliminary injunction, which prevented the enactment of Colorado's law while the lawsuit continues.
The injunction, however, only applies to the pro-life pregnancy center, according to ADF. The legal advocacy group asserted in its motion that, like the plaintiffs in the Bella Health case, Mynyk feels "religiously compelled" to provide abortion pill reversal.
"She intervenes to protect her constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. That interest is direct because she is being investigated for a possible violation of the APR Ban," the motion stated.
"Mrs. Mynyk's interest in protecting her constitutional rights would be impaired by a decision holding that the APR Ban and Advertising Prohibition are valid under the First and Fourteenth Amendments," the document added. "Such a decision would set binding precedent foreclosing Mrs. Mynyk from asserting her constitutional rights in later proceedings due to stare decisis."
The lawsuit comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a legal challenge to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's loosening of restrictions on the chemical abortion pill mifepristone. The justices listened to oral arguments related to the case on Tuesday.
While proponents of the abortion pill argue that the drug is relatively safe, groups like the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists say that the FDA "abandoned its own safety standards and the health of women and girls when it allowed mail-order abortions."
"This means that women now perform their own abortions at home alone without ever having seen a medical professional," the group wrote in a December statement after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
"According to the FDA's own label, roughly one in 25 women who use these drugs will require emergency medical attention for serious, even life-threatening, complications," AAPLOG continued. "The risks to women who take abortion drugs only increase without in-person screenings by medical professionals."
Outside the U.S. Supreme Court this week, a Texas woman told The Christian Post how taking progesterone helped save her baby's life after her husband spiked her drink with what she believed was an abortion pill.
"I was able to speak with a nurse," Catherine Herring said. "We weren't sure what was in the cup, but we thought that maybe he was trying to do something to harm the baby. [The nurse] recommended that I start a dosage of progesterone."
"And by the grace of God, I already had a prescription in my medicine cabinet from a previous pregnancy," she added. "So, I was able to take the correct dosage immediately."
Herring said her daughter is alive and 19 months old.
"She suffers from a lot of developmental issues," the mother said. "But she's alive."
Her husband, Mason, was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years probation for injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
