Colorado officials have agreed to pay a $700,000 settlement to a licensed nurse practitioner and certified midwife after she intervened in a lawsuit against a state law that prohibited her from dispensing abortion pill reversal medication.
The law, signed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in April 2023, deemed any effort to dispense or recommend abortion pill reversals as “unprofessional conduct” and “subject to discipline in this state.” It affectively barred women who changed their mind during the beginning stages of a chemical abortion from obtaining medication to save the baby’s life. Such pills have a 64% to 68% success rate on saving of unborn babies’ lives.
Bella Health and Wellness, a pro-life health care center in Denver, sued Colorado just hours after the signing, claiming it violated the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. In October 2023, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the center in the suit, secured a preliminary injunction as the lawsuit continued.
Since the injunction applied only to the center, Chelsea Mynyk, a Christian nurse practitioner and midwife who runs the reproductive health center Castle Rock Women’s Health in Denver, intervened in the center’s lawsuit. In February 2024, she received a letter from Colorado State Board of Nursing stating she was under investigation for possible violation of the Nurse Practice Act, due to a complaint about her center’s provision of the abortion pill reversal. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) intervened for Mynyk, who believes she is compelled to provide abortion reversal pills due to her Christian beliefs.
“Government officials can’t silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “Many women regret their chemical abortions, and some choose to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug, which can save their baby’s life. But Colorado’s law wrongly attempted to deny women the freedom to make that choice.”
The law was permanently blocked last August, giving Mynyk and Bella Health and Wellness a victory in the case.
ADF announced on Jan. 6 that as part of the lawsuit’s settlement, Colorado had agreed to pay Mynyk $700,000 in attorney fees.
“We’re pleased Chelsea and the other pro-life plaintiffs in this suit are allowed to get back to their life-saving work of helping women and children,” said Theriot.
Administration of natural progesterone to a pregnant woman within 24-72 hours of her taking Mifepristone, the chemical abortion pill, often can reverse the effects of the abortion pill, saving a preborn baby’s life, according to the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.
