Abortion Regulations

Fraudulent Crisis Pregnancy Centers Mad They’ll Have to Tell the Truth

Written by SK Ashby

Several so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" in California have filed a lawsuit against the state following the passage of a law requiring the centers to make certain disclosures to would-be patients.

The law, called the called the Reproductive FACT Act, requires clinics commonly referred to as “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPCs) to inform their patients about how they can obtain affordable birth control, abortion, and prenatal care. If the CPC does not have a medical license, staff must inform each patient that their their clinic is not licensed to provide health care.

Informing patients that you're not a real healthcare provider may seem like common sense, but these centers believe telling the truth is unconstitutional.

However, the lawsuit claims this act “unconstitutionally compels [the clinics] 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,” therefore undermining their free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

As far as I'm aware, the Constitution does not give you a right to practice medicine without a license.

To say that these centers "practice medicine" would be an overstatement, however the state of California will apparently rely on the centers' deceptive practices to win in court by asserting a right to "regulate speech done in the course of a profession."

I would describe crisis pregnancy centers as anti-abortion churches disguised as doctors offices and that image appears to be central to the state's case. If the centers want to maintain their appearance, they will be subject to regulation.

California is the first state to pass a law regulating all so-called crisis pregnancy centers.

I would be more surprised if this does not become a campaign issue which will see Republicans claim the religious liberty of these fake clinics is being violated.