Bill attacking pro-life pregnancy centers is itself deceptive
On Wednesday, March 15. I gave testimony at the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee against Senate Bill SB23-190 (tinyurl. com/ym3wvxwt), “Deceptive Trade Practice, Pregnancyrelated.” Its stated purposes are two-fold. Firstly, the bill makes it a deceptive trade practice for a person to make or disseminate to the public any advertisement that indicates that the person provides abortions or referrals for abortions if they don’t actually do so. I believe it is a reasonable request to prevent any resource center or clinic from deceptive claims. Unfortunately, these “deceptive trade practices” will only be applied against prolife pregnancy resource centers (PRCS) while the same deceptive practices by abortion clinics are ignored — such as claims by the latter that medical-abortion is not harmful to women (contrast that with “Mifepristone with misoprostol treatment is not without significant risks, including hemorrhage, infection, and potential for long-term emotional consequences,” per tinyurl.com/2xntcmbn). Or when a mother changes her mind about aborting after taking the first of two drugs for a medical-abortion, abortion clinics tell the woman that they cannot change their mind — hiding the fact that the baby can most likely be saved without harm to either the woman or the child.
The second purpose of the bill is to criminalize abortionreversal since the bill says, “A health-care provider engages in unprofessional conduct or is subject to discipline in this state if the health-care provider provides, prescribes, administers, or attempts medication abortion reversal.” By contrast, the ability to save most of the babies is attested to by an observational case series study following 547 women who chose to attempt to reverse their medical abortion after taking the abortion drug, Mifepristone, but before taking the second drug in the protocol, Misoprostol. Of the eight different treatment methods of progesterone-intake which were investigated, two were found to have effectiveness in saving the baby at 68% and 92% rates (tinyurl. com/yw4awwvr, Table 1, data-set 2, and date-sets 6, 7 and 8 combined).
Therefore, it is clear that if this bill’s purpose is to stop deceptive trade practices, then it is self-contradictory. Hiding the information that the effects of the abortiondrug, Mifepristone, can be reversed is deception. This is an issue that both pro-life and pro-choice Colorado residents can agree on — freedom of choice means just that — choice. And choice includes the right to change your mind. Pro-choice people like to say that the decision on whether to keep a baby should be between a woman and her doctor. So, let’s permit doctors and medical professionals to give women all the pertinent information, including the right to change their minds safely.
The bill makes several trivial claims that are easily refuted, as my testimony that follows shows. Section 1(c) says that anti-abortion centers aim to prevent abortions by persuading people that parenting is a better option. Since almost everyone was raised by parents, and since many of us are parents, we all had to have chosen parenting as a better option than abortion at least once. Therefore, it is false for the bill to imply “it is a deceptive trade practice” to claim “parenting is a better option.”
Another clause I testified on was Section 1(e) claiming PRCS engage in deceptive tactics targeting “Black, Indigenous, … other people of color; those who live in rural areas, people with lower incomes.” When I put this list into a Google search, I found it’s nearly identical to the list of self-confessed sins by Planned Parenthood on April 23, 2021, when they published that “Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood) … caused irreparable damage to the health and lives of generations of Black, Latino, and Indigenous people … and people with low incomes” (tinyurl. com/mr2xtfzh). Therefore, the bill’s accusation against PRCS is actually a description of the abortion-provider Planned Parenthood’s own actions.
Despite its false and inaccurate information, the bill passed onto the full Senate by a 3-2 vote with Democrats overruling all pro-life testimony. Next steps will be hearings in the House. I plan to testify against the bill there also. To comment, please email me with feedback at lloydbenes50@gmail. com. Please contact your representative at https://leg.colorado.gov/find-my-legislator with your objections to the false statements in the bill and its attempts to criminalize abortion reversal and to accuse pro-life pregnancy centers of deceptive trade practices while letting abortion clinics get away with the same.
Lloyd Benes is a retired engineer and Loveland resident.