Outrage is growing over the passage of a new law in California that requires all pregnancy centers that are licensed as clinics to “disseminate” information about free or low cost access to abortion and contraception services or face steep fines.

CNSNews.com is reporting on the Reproductive FACT Act, AB 775, which was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown (D) on Friday. The new law makes no exception for pro-life and faith-based crisis pregnancy centers when it requires all licensed clinics in the state to post the following abortion referral:

“California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women. To determine whether you qualify, contact the county social services office at [insert the telephone number].”

Any center which fails to post the notice faces a civil penalty of up to $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.

According to CNS, Assembly member David Chiu (D-San Francisco), the bill’s primary author, argued that "a growing and alarming movement is working to mislead women in order to achieve their political ideology. We have a responsibility as lawmakers to make sure that the information given to women who are making their own healthcare decisions is accurate and timely.”

Apparently, this only applies to ideologies that Mr. Chiu disagrees with. His bill makes no mention of abortion clinics that routinely refer women onto dangerous contraceptives such as the NuvaRing, Yaz and Yasmine, all of which have thousands of lawsuits pending against them. Nor are they required to provide information about the psychological harm done to women in the wake of abortion. It only applies to pro-life pregnancy centers.

Naturally, NARAL President Ilyse Hogue was quick to celebrate the bill’s passage.

"Anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers are ground-zero in the fight for reproductive freedom,” she said in a statement released Friday. “[A]nd Gov. Brown and the California legislature can be proud of leading the first successful statewide effort to ensure that no woman is tricked into walking through doors of a CPC [crisis pregnancy center] to be manipulated and shamed again.”

Pro-life groups have dubbed the law “the bully bill” and say it forces pro-life pregnancy centers to violate their conscience rights by participating in abortion referrals.

"Does the government have a right to tell a newspaper what to write, a preacher what to preach, a private school what to teach? Of course not,” said Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) in a statement following the bill’s passage in the State Assembly. “So why is it okay for the government to force pro-life pregnancy centers against their will to advertise and promote government abortion services?”

She continued: “Democrat legislators claimed this is necessary because the information provided by prolife pregnancy care centers is not, ‘fully-informed,’” said Grove. “So, according to this logic, if the government finds that your message isn’t ‘fully-informed,’ it now has a right to compel you to do and say things you do not believe in. The founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves.”

Assemblywoman Kristin Olson (R-Modesto) says women should be allowed to make their own choices and AB775 prevents this

“Women choose to seek assistance from these pregnancy centers. Nobody forces them to go, nobody forces them to stay. They choose to go and they have the option to leave at any time,” Olson said. “AB 775 sets a bad precedent by allowing the state - a government entity - to dictate what information a non-profit organization - a non-profit that receives not a dime of state or government funding -- has to provide to their clients.”

There seems to be no end to the totalitarian mind-set of pro-abortion despots. They can’t survive in a free-thinking democracy and can only do so by bullying women via oppressive laws and/or duplicitous language aimed at controlling the debate and treating women like second-class-citizens who can’t be trusted to think for themselves.

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