A pro-life Catholic clinic filed a lawsuit Friday challenging a Colorado law prohibiting it from giving women a natural hormone pill when trying to reverse an abortion, according to a press release.
The “Prohibiting Deceptive Practices at Anti-Abortion Centers” bill, passed in April of this year, prohibited clinics from giving women progesterone after they have taken the first dose of the chemical abortion pill to stop the procedure from continuing. Bella Health and Wellness, a nonprofit Catholic healthcare clinic in Colorado, responded by filing a lawsuit, arguing that the law violates their religious rights as well as their medical conscience to be barred from “assist[ing]” or “inform[ing]” women of their options. (RELATED: University Asks Students How To ‘Support’ Their ‘Right To Abortion Access’ After DeSantis Ban)
“A new Colorado law targets women who have changed their minds about abortion, forcing them to undergo abortions they seek to avoid,” the lawsuit read. “Plaintiffs, in fact, feel religiously compelled to offer this treatment to women facing threatened miscarriage. They cannot in good conscience turn their backs on either their pregnant patient or the pregnancy she seeks their medical help to continue.”
A pro-abortion activist displays abortion pills as she counter-protests during an anti-abortion demonstration on March 25, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR / AFP)
Progesterone has been widely used in the U.S. for years as a treatment to thicken the uterus lining and prevent contractions that could lead to miscarriages, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The lawsuit explains that progesterone treatment is legal in 49 states and only Colorado has recently “decided to make “it illegal to give progesterone to one particular group: women who have changed their minds about having an abortion and instead choose to stay pregnant.”
The law would subject any medical professional who informs a woman of the option to use progesterone or prescribes the hormone to reverse an abortion to potentially losing their license and “crushing financial penalties,” according to the lawsuit. Bella Health could be fined up to $20,000 per violation of the new law and the lawsuit argues that this is a deliberate attempt by the state to target pro-life and religious clinics.
The clinic is run by a mother and daughter nurse practitioner team Dede Chism and Abby Sinnett as the “first comprehensive, life-affirming OB-GYN practice in Colorado,” according to the lawsuit.
“We opened Bella because of our belief that life is a precious gift from God, worthy of protection at all stages,” Chism said in the press release. “When a woman seeks our help to reverse the effects of the abortion pill, we have a religious obligation to offer every available option for her and her child.”
The attorney general’s office and the medical board did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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