Colorado Says Yes to Junk Science

Despite a lack of evidence, the federal court has blocked a ban on so-called abortion-reversal treatments.

By Danielle Han | August 5, 2025 | 4:56pm

Photo: iStockphoto Politics

In yet another win for junk science en route to Gilead, a Trump-backed federal judge in Colorado has given clinics a go-ahead on anti-abortion messaging and anti-abortion treatments that have little to no evidence of actually working. Praise be!

Judge Daniel Domenico’s ruling makes permanent his preliminary injunction from two years ago, after state lawmakers signed a bill that would curb “deceptive actions regarding pregnancy-related services.” The policy, alongside putting an end to anti-abortion scare tactics used by crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), stated that “provid[ing], prescrib[ing], administer[ing], or attempt[ing] medication abortion reversal” would be cited for “unprofessional conduct.”

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Needless to say, pro-lifers were not happy about a law that disallowed them from bullying pregnant people–and soon after, Catholic clinic Bella Health and Wellness filed a lawsuit saying their constitutional rights were being violated. They were backed by conservative law firms such as the Alliance for Defending Freedom (yep, the same far-right cabal that helped overturn Roe v Wade), and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. But now that Domenico has blocked the law’s enforcement, these bible-thumping loons are celebrating yet another moment of eroding the country’s reproductive-justice system.

In his ruling, Judge Domenico writes that “while the clinical efficacy of abortion pill reversal remains debatable, nobody has been injured by the treatment and a number of women have successfully given birth after receiving it.” But his argument is weak.

The “so-called ‘abortion pill reversal’ is not real. There is no science behind it,” Amy Myrick, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, explains to Jezebel. “So, in effect, this ruling gives providers at this clinic the green light to lie to patients by offering them an unproven and potentially dangerous ‘treatment.’”

And yes–abortion-pill reversals entail some quack-ass prescriptions. Purportedly, the treatments work by taking progesterone within 24-72 hours after taking mifepristone and misoprostol: while mifepristone thins the lining of the uterus, progesterone is meant to “thicken” it up–thus allowing a pregnant person to “undo” their abortion. But “there is no credible scientific evidence that medication abortion “reversal” is an effective medical treatment protocol,” Molly Meegan, Chief Legal Officer at the American College of OBGYNs, explains to Jezebel. “The only study to consider the issue had to be stopped early because of the incidence of hemorrhage.”

Meegan also warns there could be other repercussions. “The ability of crisis pregnancy centers and fake clinics to prove this unproven treatment may have dangerous ramifications for patients and further stigmatizes abortion and proliferates harmful myths about abortion care.”

Despite the lack of scientific evidence to support such treatments, however, abortion reversals are posing serious challenges in the fight to improve abortion access. In states such as Arkansas and Kentucky, clinicians are also now mandated by law to inform people seeking to terminate their pregnancy about the option–and similar legislation is being considered in other states, too.

“Patients should be able to trust that their doctors are offering them evidence-based care, no matter where they get it,” says Myrick. “No clinic—religiously affiliated or not—should be allowed to misinform patients and push dangerous concepts like ‘abortion reversal[s].’”

Alas, Colorado could have really made history with its “deceptive actions” law–and could have been the country’s first state to actively ban the use of abortion reversals. Looks like that will have to wait.

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