California passed a law last week that requires crisis pregnancy centers to inform their clients of all reproductive options including contraception and abortion. The law is expected to prompt lawsuits from pro-life forces that fund clinics contending that the law violates their free speech rights. (San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2015, by Bob Egelko)
Right on schedule, two clinics filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles and Sacramento charging that the law “unconstitutionally compels [the plaintiffs] to speak messages that they have not chosen, with which they do not agree, and that distract, and detract from, the messages they have chosen to speak.” The pro-life forces think that they have a strong case in resisting state-mandated speech to private religious agencies. (National Catholic Register, October 14, 2015, by Joan Frawley Desmond)
The law was aimed at combating centers that provide inferior medical care and misleading medical information to prevent decisions to abort pregnancies. An investigation found that nearly half of California’s crisis pregnancy centers tell clients the falsehood that ending a pregnancy increases the odds of their developing breast cancer. California can regulate health care but may have difficulty in court on the free speech issue. (Mother Jones, October 12, 2015, by Molly Redden)