Colo. pays over $6M to settle legal challenge to abortion pill reversal ban
Colorado has agreed to pay more than $6 million in legal fees to settle litigation against a state law barring pro-life groups from providing the abortion pill reversal treatment for women seeking to save their babies' lives by stopping a chemically-induced miscarriage that has already been initiated.
Bella Health and Wellness, a pro-life Catholic clinic based in Denver, sued Colorado over a law that prohibited it from counseling women not to complete an abortion pill regimen.
The religious liberty law firm Becket, which helped represent Bella Health, announced Tuesday that Colorado agreed to pay $5.4 million in attorneys' fees to settle the lawsuit.
“At least 18 moms who received abortion pill reversal care at Bella just celebrated Christmas with babies born during this case,” said Rebekah Ricketts, senior counsel at Becket, in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
“All Coloradans should celebrate those little miracles and the brave medical team at Bella that helped their moms when no one else would,” she added.
Colorado also agreed on Tuesday to pay $700,000 in legal fees to settle a challenge by nurse practitioner Chelsea Mynyk, who joined the Bella Health lawsuit in 2024.
Kevin Theriot, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Mynyk, said in a statement released Tuesday that he was “pleased” with the settlement.
“Many women regret their chemical abortions, and some choose to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug, which can save their baby’s life,” he stated.
“But Colorado’s law wrongly attempted to deny women the freedom to make that choice. We’re pleased Chelsea and the other pro-life plaintiffs in this suit are allowed to get back to their life-saving work of helping women and children.”
An abortion pill reversal treatment occurs when a pregnant woman undergoing a medication abortion (also known as chemical abortion) changes her mind and takes progesterone, a natural hormone, to counteract the effects of the first pill.
The treatment is controversial in certain circles, with pro-life groups insisting that it has saved thousands of lives while establishment groups, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, argue that the evidence is still lacking.
In April 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a law that labeled any effort to provide or recommend abortion pill reversal as “unprofessional conduct” and “subject to discipline in this state.”
The law soon became the subject of a legal challenge, as Bella Health and Mynyk argued that the measure violated their constitutional rights and their sincerely held religious beliefs.
In August 2025, United States District Judge Daniel Domenico for the District of Colorado issued a permanent injunction against enforcing the state law.
“[W]hile the clinical efficacy of abortion pill reversal remains debatable, nobody has been injured by the treatment and a number of women have successfully given birth after receiving it,” wrote Domenico.
“The Defendants have thus failed to show that they have a compelling interest in regulating this practice, and Plaintiffs’ motion must therefore be granted to the extent it seeks a permanent injunction allowing them to continue offering the treatment.”
