Ten years ago, a young woman named Shashana walked into a Life Network clinic carrying a decision she already regretted.
She had taken the first abortion pill. Almost immediately, she knew she wanted her baby.
Many women in that moment believe it’s too late. Shashana learned it wasn’t. She became our very first Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) patient, and this month her son turns 10.
Ten birthdays. A decade of life with his family. He’s here because someone told his mother the truth: there is still hope. Praise God!
That hope is now on trial.
APR works by reintroducing the progesterone that the first abortion pill blocks, giving a woman who has changed her mind a chance to save her pregnancy. National data from Heartbeat International shows it’s effective for two out of every three women. We’ve seen it work in our own clinics.
And yet the pro-abortion movement is fighting to keep women like Shashana from ever getting that chance. Why? Because a woman who regrets her abortion just hours after taking the first pill undermines the claim that abortion rarely comes with regret.
Here in Colorado, we’ve already felt this. In 2023, our state became the only one in the nation to ban APR. Bella Health in Denver and Castle Rock Women’s Health fought back in court and won the right to offer it under freedom-of-religion protections, though the ruling applies only to them. Today, Life Network partners with Castle Rock Women’s Health so that no woman who calls us in that desperate moment is turned away.
Now, California is trying to go further.
For three years, Attorney General Rob Bonta has pursued Heartbeat International and RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics over APR. After a six-week trial, closing arguments ended last week. The state called 25 witnesses and entered nearly 200 exhibits, and never produced a single woman harmed by the treatment. Under oath, the state’s own expert, Dr. Mitchell Creinin, could not say APR doesn’t work or that it’s unsafe. That same expert was a primary voice Colorado lawmakers relied on when they passed our ban.
Bonta is seeking more than $20 million in penalties and wants to bar these ministries from telling women APR is safe. Heartbeat’s attorneys point to the AG’s own internal records, written after the Dobbs decision, showing staff discussed targeting APR for a lawsuit. That’s evidence, they argue, that this was never really about consumer protection.
The judge’s ruling is expected by year’s end. If California wins, it could become the playbook for other states to shut this option down, and the next Shashana may never get her second chance.
Will you pray with us? Pray for wisdom for the judge. Pray that life prevails. And pray for change in our state of Colorado and that Abortion Pill Reversal remains available to every mother who wants to choose her baby.
Changing lives together,
