BUFFALO, N.Y. — Late last week, Buffalo-based federal judge John Sinatra, a Donald Trump appointee, granted the National Institute for Family Life and Advocates, Gianna's House and Option Care Center a preliminary injunction.

The order allows the groups to advocate for progesterone treatments they say can reverse the effects of chemical abortion pills while prohibiting the New York State Attorney General's Office from enforcing state consumer protection laws against them with regards to that advocacy.

"It's really an interesting topic and it's particularly timely in view of what's happening in the national level," Tully Rinckey LLC partner Don Chesworth said.

The anti-abortion organization and pregnancy centers brought the federal lawsuit in response to the attorney general taking state action against another national organization and 11 other centers for sharing information about the so-called abortion pill reversal. Chesworth said they are making the argument that lawsuit effectively chills their free speech. 

"Since she is prosecuting other people for doing exactly the same thing that they want to do, that they need to have some protection for that and that's why they went to the federal courts to obtain that kind of protection," the legal analyst said.

In the injunction order, which stands until Sinatra makes a final ruling, the judge laid out several reasons why the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of the case, including his belief the speech is not for commercial gain and there is no apparent fraudulent intent. The AG argued the treatment is scientifically unproven and potentially harmful while the plaintiffs say their science shows it can work.

"Really it seems to me it's going to be a battle of the experts," Chesworth said.

He said just because the judge granted the injunction does not necessarily mean he will ultimately rule with the plaintiffs. However, Chesworth said, when it comes to regulating free speech, the AG faces a higher burden. 

"The only was the court can say that you can't talk about something is if your discussion of it is so blatantly inappropriate that people are going to get harmed by it," he said.

The attorney said the final ruling in federal court could have an impact on the ongoing state lawsuit that prompted the lawsuit as well as others in the future.

A spokesperson for the attorney general said, "Abortions cannot be reversed, and any advertising that suggests otherwise is false and misleading."

The office said the decision is disappointing and it is considering legal options.