Massachusetts threatens discipline for abortion pill reversal

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has threatened disciplinary action against pregnancy care centers that offer abortion pill reversals as the state seeks to combat what it characterizes as the “deceptive tactics” of pro-life pregnancy centers. 

In a Jan. 3 memo to “Massachusetts licensed physicians, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics,” Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein outlined a list of reminders “to licensees regarding licensure obligations and providing standard of care.” 

“Physicians and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) who practice in violation of good and accepted health care practice may be disciplined for conduct which places into question their competence to practice,” he wrote.

“For example, there is strong evidence that medication abortion reversal is unproven, unethical, and unsafe to provide to patients; such that a physician or APRN who offers or provides this treatment could be found to be practicing inconsistently with accepted practice and subject to discipline.” 

Goldstein warned that “failure to comply with recognized standards of practice is grounds for professional discipline, up to and including license revocation.” The memo did not mention pro-life pregnancy centers, but a separate notice posted on the Department of Public Health’s website that same day titled “Maintaining Integrity, Accessibility, and Transparency in Reproductive Care” dealt specifically with what the state described as “anti-abortion centers.”

“In the wake of recent complaints regarding several anti-abortion centers, DPH has initiated a review of its statutory and regulatory obligations. The purpose of this review is to make sure DPH professional licensees and facility licensees — including these centers — are adhering to their designated scope of practice and operating transparently and free from deceptive practices.” 

Heartbeat International, a network of pro-life pregnancy centers, contends that the “protocol used in the Abortion Pill Reversal process is nothing new” and that “progesterone has been used routinely and safely with pregnancy since the 1950s.”

The pro-life organization maintains that a “2018 peer-reviewed study showed positive results,” citing statistics finding that “64%-68% of the pregnancies were saved through Abortion Pill Reversal.” 

Additionally, the study determined that abortion pill reversals caused “no increase in birth defects” and that women who underwent the procedure had a “lower preterm delivery rate than the general population.”

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, meanwhile, cited information compiled by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to insist that medication abortion reversals were unsafe and unproven. 

The Department of Public Health signaled a commitment to a “multi-faceted awareness campaign” in 2024 with the aim of “educating the public” about what it claims are pro-life centers’ “deceptive tactics to limit people’s choices and prevent abortions.”

The Department of Public Health defined “anti-abortion centers” as facilities that “provide information and counseling to individuals who are, or may be, pregnant,” with some providing “testing for sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy tests, and ultrasounds to determine how far along a pregnancy may be.”

The state agency claimed that “many of these centers advertise themselves as full-service reproductive health care clinics, yet they do not provide abortion care or abortion referrals, or other important reproductive health care services.”

“Most centers in Massachusetts, however, are not licensed as ‘clinics,'” the notice states. “These non-licensed centers are largely staffed by nonmedical individuals or volunteers. Absent the provision of medical care, DPH does not have jurisdiction over these facilities and cannot oversee the quality of services they provide.”

Stating that it only had jurisdiction over four pro-life pregnancy centers statewide, the state agency invited the public to provide “feedback and complaints from individuals who have had concerning experiences with anti-abortion centers as well as from other stakeholders who have information about questionable practices.”

In Colorado, a Catholic pro-life clinic is suing the state over a new law that prohibits medical providers from offering progesterone to pregnant women seeking to reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone. In its complaint, the organization contends that prescribing progesterone to women seeking to negate mifepristone’s effects is “perfectly legal” in 49 states. The complaint also contends that women who are pressured or tricked into taking mifepristone to end their pregnancies should have the option to seek reversal. 

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Domenico issued a preliminary injunction against the Colorado law in April, stating that “plaintiffs are sufficiently likely to succeed on the merits of one or more of their claims.”

“While Colorado allows Plaintiffs and other health care providers to use progesterone for all other women facing threatened miscarriage, SB 23-190 makes it illegal for them to offer the same treatment for women facing threatened miscarriage because they initially took mifepristone (whether willingly or not) but now want to remain pregnant,” the complaint states. “Colorado law would force these women to abort pregnancies they wish to continue.”

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s warnings come as pro-life pregnancy centers across the nation have been in the crosshairs of Democrat politicians following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which determined that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was one of the first to call for the crisis pregnancy centers to be shut down nationwide as the Dobbs decision made headlines. Late last year, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., derided pro-life pregnancy centers as “brainwashing cult clinics” and signaled his commitment to “do everything we can to shut down” the facilities.

Crisis pregnancy centers have also become the targets of violence and vandalism dating back to when Politico published a leaked draft opinion of the Dobbs decision in May 2022. One of the most severe acts of vandalism took place in upstate New York, where the network of pro-life pregnancy centers CompassCare had one of its offices firebombed. 

A study conducted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, found that 2,750 pro-life pregnancy centers across the U.S. provided $350 million worth of free goods and services in 2022. 

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