California AG Puts Pro-Life Speech on Trial, Seeking More Than $20 Million in Fines

Trial begins Wednesday, in The People of the State of California v. Heartbeat International & RealOptions, “a first-of-its-kind enforcement action brought by California Attorney General Rob Bonta seeking to punish and permanently silence pro-life nonprofit organizations for sharing truthful, medically supported information about a treatment that has helped save thousands of babies’ lives after their mothers took the first abortion pill,” the Thomas More Society reports.

They continue:

Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) gives women who regret beginning a chemical abortion a second chance to choose life. The protocol administers supplemental progesterone to counteract mifepristone—the first drug in the two-pill abortion regimen—allowing the pregnancy to continue, with peer-reviewed studies showing a 64–68% success rate. APR is safe, legal, and has helped thousands of women bring their babies into the world.

Heartbeat International operates the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, providing free information and connecting women with APR providers nationwide. RealOptions is one such provider, offering both information and treatment at no cost.

The State of California’s complaint alleges that Heartbeat International and RealOptions are sharing “false or misleading statements,” as well as engaging in “unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices,” for providing information about and access to Abortion Pill Reversal to pregnant women in need.

“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance — not lies and misinformation,” said Attorney General Bonta. “And let me be clear: the evidence shows that the vast majority of people do not regret their decision to have an abortion — more than 95% of patients who undergo an abortion later say they made the right decision,” Bonta said citing a UCSF study from 2020.

Corinne Rocca, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and first author of the study proclaimed, “This debunks the idea that most women suffer emotionally from having an abortion.”

Wow. Primum non nocere. “First, do no harm.”

Notably, the UCSF study was supported by research or institutional grants from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, which has made grants to various left-leaning groups including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which supports population control and abortion access, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation which supports abortion access.

So these “philanthropic” organizations funded the study to get the population control outcome they wanted, so AG Bonta could make the ridiculous statement claiming women who have abortions have no regrets.

Thomas More Society is defending both Heartbeat International and RealOptions against this frivolous and dangerous lawsuit.

“Today, more than half of all abortions are done through chemical abortion, or ‘the abortion pill’ – a two-pill regimen that destroys the precious life of an unborn child. Abortion Pill Reversal is a cutting-edge application of a time-tested, FDA-approved treatment used for decades to prevent miscarriage and preterm birth. It involves emergency, ongoing doses of progesterone to counteract the effects of the first abortion pill,” Thomas More Society explains.

They continue:

The California Attorney General does not seek to ban APR itself – the treatment remains legal, and California doctors are free to provide it. What he seeks is something far more extraordinary: to make it illegal for two pro-life nonprofits to tell women that this legal and lifesaving option exists. After nearly three years of litigation and extensive discovery, he has not received a single consumer complaint about APR, produced no evidence that any woman was harmed or misled, and pointed to no study showing APR is unsafe or ineffective. Yet, he is seeking more than $20 million in combined fines that would threaten the financial viability of Heartbeat International and pregnancy centers like RealOptions.

“This is the pro-life ‘trial of the century,'” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President & Head of Litigation, Thomas More Society. “California AG Rob Bonta is demanding an unprecedented gag order and a ruinous $20 million fine against Heartbeat International, the nation’s largest pregnancy center network. Heartbeat provides free, lifesaving information to women who have changed their minds about chemical abortion and want a second chance at life for their babies. If Bonta succeeds, those moms go unaided and their babies likely die. The First Amendment forbids government from declaring what’s true and false in issues of public debate like abortion—Bonta’s prosecution runs roughshod over the Free Speech rights of every American. We won’t let him succeed.”

“The First Amendment forbids government from suppressing speech it doesn’t like, especially on deeply contested scientific debates,” said Paul M. Jonna, Special Counsel at Thomas More Society and Partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP. “Bonta’s legal theory, if it prevails, would expose any nonprofit in America that speaks publicly about its services and relies on donor support to the same government overreach. That is a threat to free speech and civil society far beyond this case.”

Jor-El Godsey, President at Heartbeat International explains the issues when a woman calls their hotline: “A woman calls our hotline in tears because she took that first pill and immediately knew she’d made a mistake. She wants her baby. We tell her there’s a chance. We connect her with a doctor. We pray with her. We never charge her a dime. And thousands of times, a baby has been born who almost wasn’t. That is what Attorney General Bonta wants to make illegal. Not because anyone has complained or has been harmed, but because he has decided that these women shouldn’t be allowed to know that a second chance at life exists.”

Tasha Keirns, CEO, RealOptions Medical Clinics also describes when women contact them: “I have sat with and supported pregnant women who came to RealOptions desperate to save their baby after taking the abortion pill, terrified that it was too late. I have administered progesterone while hopeful tears filled their eyes as they longed for Abortion Pill Reversal to work. I have also watched these empowered mothers walk back into our clinics months later with their precious baby in their arms—a child they fought for. The Attorney General of California wants to fine and silence us for saving lives. He wants to make it illegal for women to hear this lifesaving, evidence-based medical information. We will not stop fighting for a woman’s right to protect her pregnancy.”

Heartbeat International’s and RealOptions’ constitutionally protected speech is supported by multiple peer-reviewed studies, basic science, and the conclusions of professional obstetrics associations representing more than ten thousand physicians, the Thomas More Society says.

“Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Chiles v. Salazar that the government cannot suppress medical speech based on disputed science, because medical consensus evolves and licensed professionals maintain good-faith disagreements about medical practices. That is precisely what the Attorney General is attempting here.”

Thomas More Society attorneys argue that the enforcement action violates the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and the free exercise of religion, California’s constitutional reproductive privacy protections, and that the False Advertising Law does not apply to charitable, noncommercial speech in the first place.

“Zero complaints. Zero victims. Zero evidence of harm. Yet, California wants to silence the only lifeline women have to save their babies after beginning a chemical abortion.”