Free Speech: As Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Speak Life, States Work To Censor Them

This is the fourth in a series of articles from Alliance Defending Freedom on the state of free speech in America today. October 21 to 27 is National Free Speech Week.

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“If it wasn’t for the information about Abortion Pill Reversal online, I would have completed the abortion and [my baby] would not be alive today.”

Maranda Halstead’s baby was saved because of speech — information that told her about an option to save her baby’s life after she had taken, and regretted taking, the first abortion drug. But if blue-state attorneys general have their way, that life-saving speech will be censored, and mothers like Maranda will never know about abortion pill reversal.

This week commemorates Free Speech Week, which gives us an opportunity to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy in the United States. Our ability to speak freely matters. And one of the most important ways we can use our speech is by speaking life to those around us. Unfortunately, some elected officials want to silence speech that offers women who have sought an abortion the chance to save their child’s life.

In 2023, 63% of abortions were caused by abortion-inducing drugs. The abortion-by-drugs method involves taking two different drugs within a few days of each other. Some women regret taking the first drug (mifepristone) and investigate ways to halt its effects.

Pro-life pregnancy centers seek to inform these women that it may be possible to counteract mifepristone’s effects. When taken shortly after the first drug, progesterone has been shown to potentially save the life of the child. Progesterone is a naturally occurring hormone that has been used to support pregnancies for 50 years. Many women have used this method to try and reverse the effects of mifepristone, and studies and statistics suggest it has saved over 5,000 unborn babies at a 64-68% success rate.

For as much as abortion activists harp on “choice,” they don’t show much respect for those women who change their minds to ultimately choose life. Several states have made moves to shut down the speech of pro-life pregnancy centers that offer women hope and resources should they choose to save the life of their baby.

In 2023, Colorado enacted a law that prohibits doctors and nurses from offering women abortion pill reversal and assisting them in the process, making it professional misconduct to do so. For Chelsea Mynyk, a licensed nurse practitioner and certified midwife, helping women through unexpected pregnancies is a religious calling.

Yet she received a letter from the Colorado State Board of Nursing notifying her that she is being investigated for a possible violation of the Nurse Practice Act all because of an anonymous complaint about her provision of abortion pill reversal. This put Chelsea in an impossible position — follow her convictions or leave women without life-saving care.

Alliance Defending Freedom, where I serve as vice president of the Center for Life, intervened in a lawsuit filed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, on behalf of Chelsea. The court clarified that Chelsea was protected on religious liberty grounds. This meant that she may continue to help young women, like Mackenna, through the abortion pill reversal process. Mackenna recently gave birth to a healthy baby girl, who Mackenna “can’t imagine life without.” If Colorado had its way, Mackenna would never have known that Chelsea could help her choose life for her daughter.

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This crackdown on choosing to save the life of a child is not limited to Colorado. In New York, a federal judge blocked Attorney General Letitia James from abusing her authority to censor pregnancy care centers’ speech about abortion pill reversal. The judge ruled the First Amendment protects the centers’ “right to speak freely about” abortion pill reversal and say it “is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use, with her doctor, to reverse the effects of a first chemical abortion pill and, thereby, help to save the life of her unborn child.”

In California, a pro-life pregnancy center and pregnancy center network represented by ADF recently sued Attorney General Rob Bonta for doing the same thing. Elsewhere, state politicians are filing agenda-driven investigations into pro-life pregnancy centers — not just for their promotion of abortion pill reversal. In

Washington state, Attorney General Bob Ferguson closed his investigation into two faith-based, pro-life pregnancy centers after ADF sued his office for singling the pregnancy care centers out for their life affirming views. In New Jersey, Attorney General Matthew Platkin targeted First Choice Women’s Resource Centers with a burdensome subpoena because of their pro-life viewpoint.

The federal courts are rightly skeptical of government attempts to censor speech. But that hasn’t prevented state officials from trying to squelch speech with which they disagree — even if that speech might allow women to save the life of their unborn child. While opponents of the sanctity of life keep looking for creative ways to silence their political opponents, ADF stands ready to advocate for life and our ability to speak about it.

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Erin Hawley is senior counsel and vice president of the Center for Life and regulatory practice with Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal).

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.