CA Pro-Life pregnancy centers sue AG over censorship allegations

Attorneys at the Alliance for Defending Freedom have filed suit against the attorney general on behalf of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates as well as Santa Clarita Valley Pregnancy Center. 

Nearly one week ago on October 2, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of the state of California stating that the “credible threat of prosecution” was hindering them from helping women.  

This lawsuit comes in response to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit against Heartbeat International, a network of pregnancy centers across the country, and specific pregnancy centers in the state of California called RealOptics Obria Medical Clinics, in September of 2023.  

Last year, Bonta alleged in a lawsuit that the organizations use “fraudulent and misleading claims to advertise an unproven and largely experimental procedure called ‘abortion pill reversal (APR).’” 

“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance — not lies and misinformation,” said Attorney General Bonta. 

On behalf of these centers, the ADF writes in the lawsuit that, “The Constitution protects Plaintiffs’ right to speak to the public and women about lawful medical treatments provided by licensed medical professionals.”  

Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton added that, “Access to information is a hallmark of a free society and is essential to making informed medical choices. But California’s attorney general is silencing pregnancy centers and censoring information about life-saving medical options.” 

Not only is it important that the First Amendment rights of these centers remain intact, but the false claims made by Bonta regarding the efficacy of the abortion pill reversal protocol have been disproven by multiple studies.  

This lawsuit was not the first of its kind, as in 2018 the Supreme Court struck down an unconstitutional California law called the FACT Act, which was an attempt by state legislatures to force organizations to say something against their will.  

The Act blatantly attempted to stifle the work of pregnancy centers by forcing them to share information about state-sponsored abortion facilities, thereby violating their First Amendment right.  

The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), whose members include roughly 200 pregnancy centers in California and is also involved in the latest lawsuit against the Attorney General, sued the state over the 2018 law. They argued the law infringes on its freedom of speech by compelling the centers “to speak a government message and to promote government programs contrary to their pro-life beliefs.” 

In 2023, rather than force the centers to say what they did not believe, Bonta is trying to prevent them from saying what they believed to be the truth. As of June 2024, this case is still pending in court.  

Now, in response to these stifling actions which prevent pregnancy centers from providing potentially lifesaving information to pregnant mothers, pregnancy centers have decided to file this suit in response. For all who wish to follow more closely, the case is National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Bonta.   

For what might happen next, a glimpse at a New York district court handling a similar lawsuit by the ADF recently ruled that the center involved in the case could continue to tell women about APR while the lawsuit continues. This could indicate what might happen in this similar situation in California.  

As the fight for both life and free speech continues, all updates and further information regarding this case can be found here.