The glaring issues with California’s attack against pregnancy centers over ‘abortion pill reversal’

‘Abortion pill reversal’ (APR), a protocol which uses the hormone progesterone to assist women who change their minds after taking the first drug of the abortion pill regimen, has come under fire in the past several years — but since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, an all-out assault has been waged against the protocol, with some pro-abortion officials even attempting to ban such treatment or penalize those who prescribe it. And a new lawsuit attacking APR problematically relies on a number of entirely biased, pro-abortion sources to make its case.

Earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who replaced former attorney general Xavier Becerra (now the head of HHS), announced the lawsuit against “Heartbeat International (HBI)” and “RealOptions Obria,” claiming the pro-life organizations “used fraudulent and misleading claims to advertise an unproven and largely experimental procedure called ‘abortion pill reversal (APR).'”

In his public press conference announcing the lawsuit, Bonta showed his disdain for offering women life-affirming choices, stating: “The horrifying reality is that right now there are more crisis pregnancy centers in California than abortion care clinics. Crisis pregnancy centers do not provide abortion or abortion referral though they may want you to believe they do. They do not.”

To make his case, Bonta gathered much of his evidence from radically pro-abortion sources, some with ties to the pill’s manufacturer.

Live Action News reviewed the sources listed in the complaint — and, while some sources referenced the defendants’ studies or websites, many of the allegations supporting the lawsuit came from sources with a prominent pro-abortion bias.

Source #1: The “vast majority of pregnant people who choose to undergo an abortion, their most common emotion is relief,” the complaint cited, using data from the Turnaway Study — a flawed study funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and others who have been investors in the abortion pill’s U.S. manufacturer, Danco.

Authors of that study are associated with the University of California, San Francisco, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, which trains abortionists. They are also associated with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) which was founded by abortionist Felicia H. Stewart and is also funded by the previously mentioned Packard Foundation.

The Buffett Foundation, which is heavily investing in the University of California system, was also a collaborator in abortion pill clinical trials. In past years, Buffett gave $78 million to UC — and according to the New York Times, Buffett is the primary financier of the Bixby Center’s Ryan Residency Program at UCSF, where abortionists are trained.

 

Source #2: The complaint echoed previous pro-abortion claims that the abortion pill is “safer than Penicillin, Viagra, and even some over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol.”

Earlier this year, Live Action News author and researcher Bettina di Fiore investigated the ‘safer than Tylenol’ claim and discovered that abortion pill-related emergency department visits (a recent study conducted by the abortion industry itself found an ER and urgent care visit rate of 6%) were 107 times greater than the rate for acetaminophen/Tylenol.

The complaint also cites an article published by the New York Times, which claimed that hundreds of studies validate the ‘safety’ of the abortion pill. But as Live Action News previously pointed out, the Times didn’t include its list of studies for potential scrutiny. In addition, researchers for the report have abortion industry associations, and the studies spanned 30 years and therefore may not necessarily reflect protocols and dosages used today.

Source #3: The complaint claimed that the abortion pill regimen is “incredibly effective, with more than 95% of individuals who take the standard two-dose regime completing their abortion without need for any further intervention.” But to get to that conclusion, their own source indicated it was based on “Treatment with Mifepristone (oral) and Misoprostol (buccal) Through 70 Days Gestation.”

The fact is that, under a no-test protocol, the abortion industry may not be accurately dating pregnancies, and many are openly flouting the safety requirements under the REMS by prescribing the drugs past the approved 10-week limit put in place by the FDA.

In addition, the 95% efficacy rate differs depending on the source used.

For example, Planned Parenthood shows that the efficacy rate is greatly reduced as gestation increases, ranging from 91-93% at 9-10 weeks with failure rates nearly doubling when taken at gestational ages of 10-11 weeks. Danco’s website claims online that “Mifeprex is 93-98% effective for safely ending pregnancy (2-7% of women will need a surgical procedure to end the pregnancy or stop heavy bleeding)” but Danco also claimed “Mifeprex® is 97% effective in terminating early pregnancy; approximately 3% of women will require surgical intervention for ongoing pregnancy, heavy bleeding, incomplete expulsion, or other reasons such as patient request.”

The generic manufacturer, GenBioPro, claims the efficacy rate decreases to just 93% at the 10-week mark, while also claiming “2% – 7% will need a follow-up surgical procedure…”

Source #4: The complaint cites a study authored by multiple abortionists, including Dr. Daniel Grossman, Lisa Harris, David Grimes and others. Grossman, a principal investigator in abortion pill clinical trials, is also a senior adviser at Ibis Reproductive Health which — as recently as 2020 — was directly funded by Danco Laboratories and is currently funded by the Packard Foundation. While conducting trials on the abortion pill, Grossman served on organizations that lobby for abortion (NAF and NARAL Pro-Choice America). In 2019, Live Action News exposed Grossman’s ties to NARAL, and shortly thereafter, he announced his retirement from the group’s board. Grossman previously served on the board of the Whole Woman’s Health Alliance abortion chain.

Harris, a Planned Parenthood abortionist, formerly served on the board of the Society of Family Planning (SFP), founded in 2005 thanks to a generous contribution from the Packard Foundation and also funded by Buffett. She once wrote that she “does society’s dirty work,” and claimed she felt liberated after using “ordinary kitchen tools” to commit legal abortions. She has also committed abortions while she was pregnant.

Beverly Winikoff, founder of Gynuity Health Projects which oversees abortion pill clinical trials, is also an author. She currently serves on the leadership team of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) (funded by the Buffett and Packard Foundations and was at one time directly funded by Danco). The Buffett and Packard Foundations also fund Gynuity, financing studies which are used to convince the public that abortion is safe. Winikoff has served on the board of the Society of Family Planning (SFP). SFP’s official journal, Contraception, publishes abortion pill studies.

Harris and Grossman are also members of the Editorial Board of the Journal Contraception.

Sources #15 and #20: The complaint cites a publication written by Daniel Grossman and Kari White. In addition to what has been previously mentioned, Grossman also served as a consultant to Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights and is also a vocal proponent of expanding abortion. He is an abortionist with deep ties to the abortion industry and multiple conflicts of interest surrounding abortion pill studies.

White’s CV reveals that she is a member of the Society of Family Planning (funded by Buffett) where she has received financial grants as well as grant dollars from the Packard Foundation, and that she previously served on committees for Society of Family Planning and was as a Journal Reviewer for Contraception and other publications.

Source #18: The complaint cites the previously mentioned Daniel Grossman study mentioned in source #4. It was published in the Journal Contraception — hardly an unbiased publication as it is the official journal of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and the Society of Family Planning. ARHP was originally founded as The American Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians (AAPPP) in 1963 by Planned Parenthood president Alan Guttmacher, and has gone through multiple name changes.

Additional authors on that study included abortionist Matthew Reeves, who was associated with the National Abortion Federation at the time. Reeves commits abortions at the Dupont Clinic in D.C. which sells abortions “after 26 weeks.” Reeves’ LinkedIn page shows that since 2018, he has served as Chairperson of the National Medical Committee of the Planned Parenthood Federation and worked at Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan D.C. and the now disaffiliated Planned Parenthood Golden Gate.

Reeves also served on the board of DKT International, recently accused of shipping abortion drugs into the U.S. manufactured by the Delhi-based Synokem Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which was alleged to have a “shoddy quality record.” DKT’s US affiliate is the abortion chain Carafem (corporate name FemHealth USA, Inc.),which was part of the U.S. TelAbortion clinical trial, sponsored by Gynuity Health Foundation.

Paul Blumenthal, another author, was listed as being associated with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University. In reality, Blumenthal is also a Senior Clinical Adviser with Gynuity Health Projects (a.k.a. GHP Solutions LLC) which has been funded by the Packard Foundation.

Source #21: The complaint cites a study authored by Mitchell Creinin which was sponsored by groups tied to both abortion and abortion pill investors — the University of California-Davis and the Society of Family Planning (SFP). The “study” with a very small sample size is used to allege that “abortion pill reversal” (the administration of the pregnancy hormone progesterone to counter the progesterone-blocking action of mifepristone) is unsafe, despite the fact that it has been safely administered to women at risk of miscarriage for decades.

The study was published by the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (a.k.a. The Green Journal) and was the result of a failed clinical trial in which Creinin and his Planned Parenthood collaborator Laura Dalton intended to give participants either progesterone or a placebo. The “study” was terminated between August and September 2019, following the enrollment of just 12 pregnant women after researchers failed to recruit 40 participants.

Creinin is an author of an ACOG Practice Bulletin citing the safety of abortion pill up to 70 days (10 weeks) gestation. ACOG’s bulletin cites as its proof research from Creinin himself as well as others who have been paid by the abortion pill manufacturer, such as Courtney A Schreiber, Caitlin S. Shannon, and Beverly Winikoff.

Live Action News previously documented Creinin’s conflicts of interest, noting that, by his own admission, Creinin is on the payroll of abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories and receives “compensation” from Danco as a consultant. In addition, he receives consulting fees and has received an honorarium from Danco. Creinin also provides “third-party telephone consults” for Danco.

Creinin, Grossman, and Schreiber all serve on the editorial board of Contraception, the official journal of SFP, founded with a “generous contribution” from the Packard Foundation and receiving millions from the Buffett Foundation.

Source #22: The complaint cites an American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) publication attacking Abortion Pill Reversal.

The ACOG’s move toward promoting abortion was led by population control enthusiasts. It has been actively pushing to do away with safety protocols on the abortion pill and has updated its own recommendations to remain in lockstep with the abortion industry.

Over the years, the ACOG has issued numerous practice bulletins and committee opinions supporting abortion rights. In 2014, ACOG’s political arm published a committee opinion which affirmed the importance of abortion training “to increase the availability of trained abortion providers.”

ACOG began to fund the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, where abortionists are trained, and it is currently working to expand access to the abortion pill (Mifeprex), even going so far as to sue the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to lift its long-held Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Systems (REMS) safety requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ACOG is stridently pro-abortion and is funded by radical abortion organizations, including Ibis Reproductive Health (funded by U.S. abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories) and by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. ACOG recently received $1.4 million from the Buffett Foundation and has received hundreds of thousands from the foundation every year for several years. Unsurprisingly, Buffett was also one of the first investors in Danco.

Source #23: The complaint cites a statement by the American Medical Association (AMA), who at one time opposed abortion before advocating for it in 1967. The AMA’s recently adopted policy claimed it is “a violation of human rights when government intrudes into medicine and impedes access to safe, evidence-based reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception.” But when the government infringes on the medical practices of pro-life doctors who use a safe, time-tested, and effective drug such as progesterone in the ‘abortion pill reversal’ protocol, the AMA is silent.

Sources #26 and #27: The complaint cites a University of California Davis publication attacking APR, which describes the previously mentioned questionable clinical trial from Mitchell Creinin, sponsored by UC Davis for the purpose of attempting to discredit ‘abortion pill reversal’.

UCD, which is funded by the Packard and Buffett Foundations, was also the location site for Dr. Daniel Grossman’s abortion pill pharmacy study.

Additional authors of the Creinin study (terminated between August and September 2019) include Melissa Chen, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis and Laura Dalton, an officer at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, according to her LinkedIn page.

A separate author, Rachel Steward, MD, is connected to FPA Women’s Health, which commits abortions. Both FPA and Rachel Steward are mentioned in the Center for Medical Progress undercover investigations (transcript here).

AG Bonta himself holds a radical pro-abortion bias and works with the California Future of Abortion Council. He has vowed to “ensure California remains a safe place for those seeking essential reproductive healthcare and for those who provide that care.” The Council has published a playbook and report for expanding abortion. The 2022 addendum includes a letter from Bonta where he called the Council’s recommendations the “powerful roadmap to blunt the fallout of Dobbs and expand reproductive freedom in our state.”

“For my part as California’s chief law enforcement officer, I pledged to use the full force of the law and the full authority of my office to defend and expand reproductive freedom… We warned Californians of the misleading nature of the services provided by crisis pregnancy centers…” Bonta wrote.

Bonta has also been endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America (now rebranded as “Reproductive Freedom for all”) and endorsed and applauded by abortion giant Planned Parenthood, among others.