California Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) continue to legally lose their battle and quest to mislead and dissuade pregnant women from practicing their constitutional rights to abortion. The center lures women in with the word crisis and offers free services like pregnancy tests. Once inside, CPC staff begin their mission using disinformation and flat-out lies to invoke fear. In a California investigation, NARAL reps went out to CPC centers to find out what clients were being told.
Ninety-one percent of centers visited by NARAL doled out misinformation about the effects of abortion on a person’s physical and mental health, saying that having an abortion would increase the risk of breast cancer, infertility, miscarriage, and/or depression that results in suicide.
A new California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) in October will require that CPCs and their ilk give a public notice of access to abortion and birth control services, along with their own services. The law called The California Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency (FACT), or AB 775, is set to go into effect the first of the year. CPC claims the new law violates their right to freedom of speech, assembly and religion. According to Nicole Knight Shine with RH Reality Check, two federal judges disagree and denied CPC their quest to block the Reproductive FACT Law.
Judge Jeffrey S. White in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held that the three CPCs behind one of the suits fell short of the “high standard” required for a temporary injunction, and “failed to demonstrate that they would face irreparable injury.”
The licensed clinics—the Livingwell Medical Clinic, the Pregnancy Care Center of the North Coast, and the Confidence Pregnancy Center—offer free pregnancy services like pregnancy testing and ultrasounds, espouse Christian beliefs, and oppose abortion rights, according to court documents. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the CPCs by the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based anti-choice legal organization.
Judge Kimberly Mueller of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California also rejected a request for a temporary injunction brought by the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute, which represented three other CPCs. The 59-page decision held that “enjoining the act would interfere with the public interest regarding the health of state residents.”
Clinics that fail to comply with the Reproductive FACT Law will face civil penalties up to $1,000.
The attorney for CPC, Matthew McReynolds, believes “religious nonprofits should not be forced to advertise for the government if it goes against the organization’s beliefs.”
But a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris told RH Reality Check that they “will continue to defend the Reproductive FACT Act to ensure women are able to make informed decisions about their health.”
Assemblywoman Autumn Burke (D-Inglewood), who co-sponsored AB 775, nails it:
“It’s hard to understand how those who claim to care about women find it so threatening to inform them about accessing affordable health care,” Burke told the Sacramento Bee.
Thank you, Assemblywoman Burke. The hypocrisy is abound and it’s good to see the Democratic-led lawmakers in California working diligently to protect a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her own body and future. Oh, to have more states follow California’s lead in women’s unabating battle upward. With end-of-the year tax-deductible donations being sought every which way, there are many ways we can help defend reproductive rights. Here are 13 large and small pro-choice organizations you can visit/join/volunteer/financially support:
Planned Parenthood
NARAL/Pro-Choice America
NOW
NAF/National Abortion Federation
RH Reality Check
UniteWomen.org
Abortion.com
Fight Laws Against Women
We Are FUSE
Abigail Adams Brigade
Pro-Choice Liberals
Stop Patriarchy Now
Center for Reproductive Rights
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The Guttmacher Institute is an excellent source of current reproductive rights legislation.
Special thanks to RH Reality Check and to all the people and organizations who relentlessly persevere, often risking and sometimes giving their lives, to protect women’s rights and reproductive choice.