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Colorado Bioethicist Warns Against 'Abortion Reversal' Procedures
Unproven and potentially dangerous treatments are being promoted under the guise of 'comprehensive care'.
Published on Mar. 5, 2026
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As a bioethicist who has conducted research at top universities, Chase Binion is deeply concerned about the continued efforts to undermine medication abortion, including the promotion of 'abortion pill reversal.' Binion argues that there is no ethical way to design an abortion reversal study, and that the original study promoting this treatment lacked basic safeguards to protect human research subjects. He warns that allowing this unproven and potentially dangerous practice to continue can leave women with no choice at all.
Why it matters
Colorado has long been a leader in protecting reproductive rights and access to comprehensive healthcare. However, crisis pregnancy centers that offer unproven 'abortion reversal' procedures are undermining this progress by blurring the line between counseling and advocacy. This threatens to degrade the constitutional right to abortion that Colorado citizens voted to protect in 2024.
The details
The 'abortion reversal' treatment is based on a single study that lacked institutional review board approval, a prerequisite for most studies involving human subjects. Subsequent reviews have failed to find reliable evidence that progesterone alone can reverse a medication abortion. In fact, a study by the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists had to be halted early due to a high rate of medical complications, including severe bleeding. Despite the lack of scientific evidence, multiple states have passed laws mandating that physicians discuss the potential for abortion reversal when a patient seeks a medication abortion.
- In 2024, Colorado citizens passed Amendment 79, which constitutionally protects the right to an abortion and prohibits state and local governments from denying or impeding this right.
- The original study promoting 'abortion reversal' as a legitimate practice called for further studies before routine use of their protocol.
The players
Chase Binion
A bioethicist who has conducted research at three highly ranked research universities across the country and is currently an MD-PhD candidate at the University of Virginia and University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where he serves as a certified clinical ethicist.
Olivia Widman
A JD candidate at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law who is interested in health law and reproductive rights, and is currently an intern at Cobalt Advocates in Denver.
The takeaway
Colorado has been a national leader in reproductive healthcare precisely because it has prioritized evidence over ideology. Allowing unproven and potentially dangerous 'abortion reversal' procedures to continue undermines this commitment to transparent, ethical, and evidence-based healthcare that is the foundation of real access to reproductive rights.
