A national pregnancy center organization has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Southern California seeking an immediate preliminary injunction against the State of California to prevent enforcement of a new law requiring all pregnancy centers to provide information to patients on how to obtain a state-funded abortion.
The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), a national legal network of 1,350 prolife pregnancy centers with 115 in the state of California, filed suit on Monday to stop the state from imposing stiff fines on any center that does not display abortion referral information.
AB775, known as the Reproductive Fact Act, was signed into law last Friday by Governor Jerry Brown. It mandates that medical prolife pregnancy centers post a notice in their waiting room in 22 point type or provide written or digital information to their patients on how to obtain a state-funded abortion. Non-medical pregnancy centers must also post in 48 point type a statement saying that they are not medical and that they have no physician on staff.
Violation of this law results in a fine of $500 for a first offense and then $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
The law was heavily supported and promoted by Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby and will go into effect on January 1, 2016.
Seventy-seven of NIFLA’s 115 pregnancy center members in California are licensed medical clinics. Virtually all of its membership are religious organizations and oppose, on religious principle, providing referrals for abortion.
NIFLA is seeking an immediate preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law and eventually a permanent injunction.
Thomas Glessner, J.D., president of NIFLA, called the Act “an outrageous unconstitutional violation of the rights of free speech and freedom of religion for our California members. The Act unconstitutionally forces prolife pregnancy centers, on pain of government penalty, to engage in government disclaimers that they would not otherwise provide, and to provide abortion referral information to their patients/clients. It further violates the federal Coats-Snowe Amendment, which prohibits requiring medical clinics to make referrals for abortion.”
Anne O’Connor, NIFLA’s Vice-President for Legal Affairs and a licensed California attorney, is serving on the legal team for the law suit and will be joined by attorneys with the non-profit Christian legal organization known as Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
“We cannot allow this intrusion into the religious freedom of our prolife members in California,” O’Connor said. “If this Act is not successfully challenged then states, prompted by Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry, will pass similar legislation forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to become abortion referral agencies.”
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