Federal judge won’t block Colorado’s new abortion reversal ban since state isn’t planning to enforce it

A federal judge on Friday denied a Catholic health clinic’s efforts to block Colorado from enforcing its ban on a controversial abortion-reversal treatment since the state already has said it plans to suspend any enforcement of the new law.

In an order in U.S. District Court, Judge Daniel D. Domenico rejected Englewood-based Bella Health and Wellness’s motion for a preliminary injunction. As a result, the temporary restraining order the judge granted earlier this month has been dissolved.

“A preliminary injunction is not necessary, and therefore not appropriate, at this time because the defendants have represented to the court that they are treating SB23-190 as if it were not yet in effect and has not changed preexisting law,” the judge wrote in the 7-page ruling.

The clinic sued the state immediately after Gov. Jared Polis signed the law this month banning so-called medication abortion reversal — a treatment that medical experts have said is not supported by science.

Bella Health and Wellness argued SB23-190 violates its First Amendment rights and religious freedoms, and that its immediate enforcement would interrupt ongoing patient care.

The Catholic clinic offers progesterone to patients who want to keep their pregnancies after previously taking mifepristone to induce an abortion.

“Colorado’s attorney general ran away from this law once he realized the legislature had shot from the hip,” said Rebekah Ricketts, an attorney representing Bella Health and Wellness, in a statement Friday.

After Domenico issued a 14-day temporary restraining order, Colorado regulators and the attorney general’s office told the court that they would not enforce the ban until rules governing the use of the medication are written.

The new law designates medication abortion reversal as unprofessional conduct that is subject to professional discipline. The ban was meant as a temporary measure while the Colorado Medical Board and the state boards of pharmacy and nursing issue decide whether medication abortion reversal can still be used in the state.

Under the new law, the ban is to be reversed if the boards issue new rules by Oct. 1 that find the treatment to be acceptable and a generally accepted standard of practice.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says abortion reversal treatments do not meet clinical standards. The group calls the procedures “unproven and unethical.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get health news sent straight to your inbox.