Finally, some good pro-life news out of Colorado! Judge Susan Prose issued an order last Monday allowing nurse practitioner Chelsea Mynyk to intervene (enter the existing lawsuit) in the case Bella Health and Wellness v. Weiser. The case concerns Bella Health and Wellness, which sued the state on religious grounds about not being able to offer anti-abortifacient pills.
On October 21, 2023, Bella Health secured a preliminary injunction (temporary suspension), preventing Colorado’s recent law that bars healthcare providers from offering abortion pill reversal treatments from being enacted while the lawsuit continues; however, the injunction only applied to Bella Health and Wellness (which Chelsea Mynyk was not associated with). Her legal team, Alliance Defending Freedom, wanted to get Chelsea included in the above, which would exempt Chelsea and her Castle Rock Women’s Health clinic from the same state law.
Yes, you read that description of the law correctly! Colorado law is all too happy to let medical staff prescribe the “abortion pill” (RU-486) to their patients, but if the patient changes her mind or regrets taking the pill (or even may have been coerced to initiate a chemical abortion process in the first place) and wants to save the baby, the same medical team cannot even offer progesterone to counteract mifepristone (RU-486). ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot is quoted in the article as stating,
Colorado can’t silence medical professionals and prevent them from saving lives. 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.
Chelsea “asserts that the Colorado law violates her First Amendment rights by restricting free speech and her Fourteenth Amendment rights by impeding due process and unlawfully limiting her ability to provide complete information and services to their patients.” A licensed nurse practitioner, Chelsea practices as a certified nurse midwife at Castle Rock Women’s Health, which she owns and operates. Her personal involvement in the matter began (and caused her to also file suit) when she was notified by the Colorado State Board of Nursing that her practice was being investigated following an anonymous complaint regarding her health clinic providing abortion pill reversal.
It seems hard to imagine that a state will allow for (really push for) abortion medicines but will not allow nurses and doctors to prescribe medicines that can undo the damage caused by them. Remember, we are talking about the life of a child made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26–27). But last year, Colorado passed a law explicitly banning the procedure of providing progesterone to patients who wanted to counteract RU-486.
What a wicked culture that desires the death of the innocent (Psalm 94:21). They are really mandating child sacrifice. But fortunately, God has raised up teams like ADF and individuals like Chelsea Mynyk to stand firm on their (and our) religious freedoms and convictions.
God commands us to stand for and care for the weak, the fatherless, and the widow. Every Christian’s desire to save life is instilled in us because that is what God says about his character (Deuteronomy 10:17–18; Psalm 68:5), and he commands us to do these things by the power of the Holy Spirit (Psalm 82:3–4; 1 Thessalonians 5:14–15; James 1:27, 2:15–16; 1 John 3:17).
