A federal judge has ruled that New York Attorney General Letitia James violated the First Amendment free speech rights of faith-based pregnancy centers in the Empire State.
In May 2024, James filed suit in state court to stop 11 pregnancy centers and Heartbeat International from sharing abortion pill reversal information and referrals. Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, James alleged that the centers are spreading “false and misleading” information about progesterone, which reverses the effects of the abortion drug mifepristone.
Subsequently, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (a pro-life organization that supports and defends pregnancy centers), Gianna’s House, Inc., and Options Care Center filed suit in federal district court to protect their First Amendment rights and were victorious. James then appealed the case to the 2nd Circuit.
On December 1, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the pregnancy centers are free to tell women about the life-saving potential of using progesterone for abortion-pill reversal while their lawsuit continues.
In a press release, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the legal organization that defended the pregnancy centers, commended the court’s decision.
“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. They should be allowed to hear about this option and make that choice,” said ADF Senior Counsel Caroline Lindsay, who argued before the court. “The court is correct to affirm that women in New York have the right to access information about safe and effective supplemental progesterone through their local pregnancy centers, regardless of what the attorney general may personally believe. The First Amendment clearly protects the right to speak and hear about this potentially lifesaving option.”
In 2024, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) noted that the abortion pill reversal (APR) information that pregnancy centers provide is supported by multiple studies; Progesterone is a natural hormone needed to sustain pregnancy and has been used safely and effectively for decades to prevent miscarriage and forestall preterm labor.
In 2018, the medical journal Issues in Law and Medicine published a peer-reviewed study that found APR to be successful in saving unborn children between 64 and 68 percent of the time when administered within 72 hours of taking mifepristone. According to Hope for a New Generation, a report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, Care Net, and other pro-life organizations, APR saved over 5,000 babies from 2012 to 2023.
In the recent case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit affirmed the district court’s previous ruling, protecting the pregnancy centers’ right to share information about progesterone treatment. A key factor in the decision was the determination that the speech at issue is not commercial but “religiously and morally motivated.” Under the law, commercial speech (such as advertising a product or service) gets less protection than noncommercial speech (speech about ideas, beliefs, or public issues). Attorney General James argued that the pregnancy centers’ statements about abortion pill reversal were commercial, meaning the state could regulate or restrict them more easily.
In August 2024, district judge John Sinatra also wrote that “the government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.”
“We are thrilled with the ruling in our favor as it recognizes that pregnancy resource centers in New York are now free to help women who regret taking the abortion pill and want a chance at saving their babies,” said Thomas Glessner, president of NIFLA. “Abortion pill reversal, as the court said, offers no financial gain for pregnancy centers. They are simply giving women another option [besides] ending the lives of their unborn babies. Speech is not unconstitutional simply because the other side disagrees with it.”