The State of California has launched a lawsuit against two major pro-life organizations, alleging they used deceptive marketing tactics to promote a medical treatment known as “abortion pill reversal.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit in the Alameda County Superior Court against Ohio-based Heartbeat International, Inc. and California-based RealOptions, which operates five pregnancy resource clinics under the name RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics.

Allegations of Deceptive Marketing

The state’s civil complaint accuses the organizations of violating California’s Business and Professions Code by spreading “false and misleading statements” and engaging in unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices. At the center of the lawsuit is the marketing of a protocol that claims high doses of the hormone progesterone can counteract the effects of mifepristone, the first medication taken during a standard two-drug medical abortion.

According to the state’s legal complaint, “not a single credibly designed medical study has verified” the defendants’ assertions that medication abortions can be reversed. The state argues that the pro-life groups rely on a 2012 case series and a 2018 report co-authored by doctors associated with the organizations. The lawsuit claims these publications are fundamentally flawed, citing a “lack of random sampling, the absence of controls or a comparison group, and heterogeneity of subjects.”

Medical Concerns and Omissions

A 2019 randomized clinical study at the University of California, Davis, which attempted to test the safety and efficacy of the reversal protocol, had to be halted early due to acute “safety concerns” after three of the 12 enrolled participants experienced severe bleeding that required ambulance transport to an emergency department. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants intentionally omit these risks from their marketing, hotlines, training kits, and patient consent forms.

Major medical entities, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA), are cited in the complaint as supporting the state’s position that the reversal treatments do not meet clinical standards and are not supported by reliable scientific evidence.

Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.