Under a U.S. district court ruling, Heartbeat International and 11 other New York pro-life pregnancy centers can continue referring clients for abortion pill reversals while a lawsuit claiming that the groups are engaging in fraud and false advertising continues.
Heartbeat International offers mifepristone reversals in the form of progesterone. Mifepristone, an abortion pill, blocks progesterone, which is a pregnancy hormone that sustains a pregnancy. Following mifepristone, a woman takes misoprostol which causes her to expel the baby. But women who regret taking mifepristone can take progesterone to thwart mifepristone to potentially save the child’s life if taken within a 72-hour window.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has been backing the centers in the lawsuit. Legal Counsel Gabriella McIntyre applauded the ruling in an ADF press release.
“Many women regret their abortions, and some change their minds after taking the first abortion drug and want to try to save their unborn babies’ lives,” McIntyre said. “The district court was right to allow women to hear about this option and make that choice.”
The organizations came under legal fire in May 2024 when New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against the group. She claimed the organizations were committing deceptive business practices and that such progesterone protocols were unsafe.
But the U.S. District Court of Western New York backed the centers earlier this month, extending an injunction that allows the groups to advertise abortion pill reversal.
“The New York attorney general has desperately tried to censor and keep women in the dark about abortion-pill reversal,” McIntyre said, “but they have every right to be empowered with information about this potentially life-saving option.”
Statistics show that 8,000 babies have been saved through progesterone. Progesterone has long been used to prevent miscarriage as well.
Despite the data, James claims that abortions cannot be reversed.
“Any treatments that claim to do so are made without scientific evidence and could be unsafe,” James said. “Heartbeat International and the other crisis pregnancy center defendants are spreading dangerous misinformation by advertising ‘abortion reversals’ without any medical and scientific proof.”
James’ efforts were first blocked in August 2024, when U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. blocked enforcement action on the centers and allowed them to continue advertising abortion pill reversal. James appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which backed the pregnancy centers. In their December 2025 ruling, they ruled that as the case continued, pregnancy centers’ free speech couldn’t not be restricted by the state. That ruling was upheld by the federal district court’s recent ruling to extend the injunction.
