A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked Colorado from enforcing part of a 2023 law that bars medical professionals from offering “abortion reversal” treatments—specifically as it applies to a Catholic health clinic.
Bella Health and Wellness had earlier won an injunction against Senate Bill 190, arguing that the law violated their religious beliefs by preventing them from assisting women who wanted to continue their pregnancies after starting a medication abortion. The court agreed the law placed an unconstitutional burden on their religious exercise.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico said the evidence presented since the 2023 injunction largely confirmed his earlier concerns. While he acknowledged the state’s right to regulate treatments with questionable effectiveness, he ruled that this didn’t apply when a law affects religious practices.
He noted that while the effectiveness of abortion reversal remains uncertain, there have been no injuries reported from the treatment, and several women have successfully given birth after receiving it. As a result, the state failed to demonstrate a compelling interest in banning the treatment, leading Domenico to grant a permanent injunction for Bella Health to continue offering it.
However, Domenico, a Trump-appointed judge, upheld other parts of the law that classify abortion reversal treatments as a form of deceptive trade practice.
“Colorado should never have tried to stop Bella from helping pregnant women who want to choose life for their babies,” said Rebekah Ricketts, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the clinic. “This ruling ensures that pregnant women in Colorado will not be denied this compassionate care or be forced to have abortions against their will.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, representing nurse practitioner Chelsea M. Mynyk, described the order as permanently blocking a state law. Domenico clarified that his ruling only protects the plaintiffs from enforcement—not the law itself—citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that limits judicial relief to parties directly involved in a case.
Medication abortions usually involve two drugs: mifepristone followed by misoprostol. Some evidence suggests that administering progesterone after the first pill may help maintain a pregnancy, though the scientific backing remains mixed. One expert, Joseph Vernon Turner, has said there is no strong evidence for its benefit, but also no safety concerns. A BMJ journal review similarly concluded that current evidence doesn’t support recommending progesterone for this purpose.
Bella Health’s lawyers said 11 babies had been born to patients since they filed suit in April 2023, arguing their care was part of a religious mission the state sought to punish. Colorado countered that the state was within its rights to treat abortion reversal as unprofessional conduct due to insufficient medical evidence—unless all state medical boards endorsed it as standard practice.
Domenico found the law unfairly targeted the religious use of progesterone, while not restricting its use in other contexts. He added that state regulatory boards had indicated they would assess abortion reversal cases individually, giving them leeway in enforcement.
He concluded the state was not applying its regulation neutrally, instead singling out a treatment connected to religious belief. While the judge ruled the treatment ban unconstitutional as it applied to Bella Health, he upheld the law’s provisions on deceptive advertising, noting the state had taken no enforcement actions against the clinic since the lawsuit began. If that changed, the plaintiffs could return to court.
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Katie is a senior who has been on staff for three years. Her favorite type of stories to write is reviews and features. Katie’s favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry.
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