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Judges Turn Away Two Injunctions to Halt California Bully Bill

Pro-life pregnancy help centers are days away from having to choose between following their conscience and following a newly enacted state law in California, after two district judges denied motions for preliminary injunctions Monday.

The motions were filed on behalf of a total of six life-affirming pregnancy help medical clinics—each of which are state-licensed clinics—by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) in separate cases.

Judges in both cases declined to stop the so-called “Reproductive FACT Act” from taking effect Jan. 1, 2016 on constitutional grounds.

The rulings set the stage for the state’s 150 pro-life pregnancy help locations—including 74 state-licensed clinics offering free limited ultrasound—to incur first-offense fines starting at $500 for refusing to post signage the organizations say forces them to advertise a pro-abortion message.

[For remainder of article — http://pregnancyhelpnews.com/judges-turn-away-two-injunctions-to-halt-california-bully-bill , Heartbeat Int’l email, 28 Dec 2015]

 
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PREGNANCY CENTERS UNDER ATTACK
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ADF, NIFLA, File Suit on Behalf of California Pregnancy Centers to Stop New Law Forcing PCs to Promote Abortion
by Jay Hobbs

The ink was still drying from California Gov. Jerry Brown’s pen after he signed AB 775 into law last Friday by the time Kevin Snider, lead counsel for the Pacific Justice Institute, filed a lawsuit to begin the process of striking down what pro-life opponents had called the “Bully Bill” during its path through the California legislature this summer.

Citing what its president, Brad Dacus, called the new law’s “egregious violation of both the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution,” Pacific Justice Institute filed federal lawsuits in northern and southern California on behalf of many of the state’s 150-plus pregnancy help organizations over the weekend.

Citing what its president, Brad Dacus, called the new law’s “egregious violation of both the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution,” Pacific Justice Institute filed federal lawsuits in northern and southern California on behalf of many of the state’s 150-plus pregnancy help organizations over the weekend.

As both organizations had indicated in the lead-up to the bill’s approval, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a similar complaint Tuesday.

“A government that tells you what you can’t say is dangerous, but a government that tells you what you must say – under threat of severe punishment – is terrifying,” ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said in a press release. “Pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women, shouldn’t be punished by political allies of the abortion industry. Forcing pro-life centers to promote abortion and recite the government’s messages is a clear violation of their constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms. Courts around the country have already rightly struck down these types of laws.”

Like its predecessors in Austin (TX), Baltimore and Montgomery County (MD), and New York City, the so-called Reproductive FACT Act would compel life-affirming pregnancy help organizations to publicize a state-sponsored message. Each of the aforementioned cases were thrown out in court cases that declared the government-sponsored disclaimers unconstitutional.

This January, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from LifeSiteNews.com revealed the collusion between Montgomery County elected officials and staffers at pro-abortion NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland that eventually cost county taxpayers over $300,000 by the time the municipality stopped its battle to preserve an unconstitutional requirement on pregnancy centers.

Similarly, records obtained by Heartbeat International in June revealed that California’s Reproductive FACT Act, also sponsored by NARAL’s state chapter, was partially based upon a State Assembly-commissioned report from UC Hastings College of Law that strategizes how lawmakers could crack down on community-based non-profit pregnancy help organizations.

Tweet This: @AllianceDefends, @NIFLA coming to aid of #California #prolife centers

The law will force 150 local pregnancy help non-profits, including the 74 state-licensed free ultrasound facilities, to give each of its clients the following disclaimer, which includes the phone number of a county social services office where a client could obtain an abortion covered by Medi-Cal.

The notice, which the law specifies must either be posted as a public notice in “22-point type,” “distributed to all clients in no less than 14-point font” or distributed digitally “at the time of check-in or arrival,” applies to all of the entities—even those licensed by the state.

“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].”

Meanwhile, pregnancy help centers that do not offer medical services will be required to post the following signage in two “clear and conspicuous” places—“in the entrance of the facility and at least one additional area where clients wait to receive services,” as well as in “any print and digital advertising materials including Internet Web sites”.

The font required is to be “in no less than 48-point type” and will read as follows:

“This facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the State of California and has no licensed medical provider who provides or directly supervises the provision of services.”

“AB775 is an outrageous and unconstitutional violation of both the right of free speech and the right of freedom of religion for our members in California,” Thomas Glessner, J.D., president of NIFLA, said in an email Tuesday. “The Act unconstitutionally forces prolife pregnancy centers, on pain of government penalty, to engage in government disclaimers that they would not otherwise provide.”

Carol Dodds, executive director at A Woman’s Friend Pregnancy Resource Clinic—a state-licensed medical clinic in Marysville—was among the first to file suit in the wake of Gov. Brown’s approval. Joining Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northern California in Redding, A Woman’s Friend was represented by Pacific Justice Institute’s initial complaint over the weekend.

“A Woman’s Friend is a faith-based organization, incorporated for the purpose of providing alternatives to abortion,” Dodds said. “By requiring us to provide our clients with a phone number for a government agency that will connect our clients to an abortion clinic, the Reproductive FACT Act, at a minimum, compels us to speak a message we have not chosen, with which we do not agree, that distracts and detracts from the message we have chosen to speak. That mandated state message is inconsistent with our religious convictions.”

Tweet This: #AB775 is an outrageous violation of free speech. @NIFLA, @AllianceDefends #prolife

Representatives from Heartbeat International, which has 45 of its nearly 2,000 affiliates in the Golden State, have also been vocal in their opposition to the newly signed law, with vice-president Jor-El Godsey calling it a “coordinated attack against grassroots non-profit organizations” and president Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., saying it was a “state-sponsored attack on women by the highly profitable abortion industry.”

“This bill is nothing short of a state-sponsored attack on women by the highly profitable abortion industry,” Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., president of Heartbeat International, which has 45 of its nearly 2,000 affiliates in California, said. “Women desperately need emotional support and practical resources during an unexpected pregnancy. Gov. Brown has made it more difficult for women to find the help they need to make the healthiest decision for everyone involved in an unexpected pregnancy.”

Similar government-sponsored speech for pregnancy centers has been struck down as unconstitutional in Austin (TX), Baltimore and Montgomery County (MD) and New York City.

[13 October 2015, http://pregnancyhelpnews.com/adf-nifla-file-suit-on-behalf-of-california-pregnancy-centers ; 13 oct 2015, http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/15/second-lawsuit-filed-against-california-law-forcing-pregnancy-centers-to-promote-abortions/]

 
Planned Parenthood is Trying to Shut Down Pregnancy Centers or Make Them Promote Abortion
The abortion industry’s business model is simple. Funnel as many susceptible women in their time of need into an abortion mill to murder babies and reap astounding profits. It has successfully evaded almost any regulation as an industry. It has manipulated Congress to take over half a billion dollars (nearly half of its annual budget) from the American taxpayer.

Click to Read at LifeNews.com:
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/20/planned-parenthood-is-trying-to-shut-down-pregnancy-centers-or-make-them-promote-abortion/

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California Governor Signs Anti-Pregnancy Center Law
by Jay Hobbs

A law forcing life-affirming pregnancy centers and state-licensed medical clinics to distribute information on where and how to obtain a state-funded abortion was signed Friday by California Governor Jerry Brown, according to a report from the Washington Times.

Brown’s signature comes just a day after the influential San Jose Mercury News ran an op-ed from NARAL Pro-Choice America, a major backer of the bill that pro-life opponents say infringes upon the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment by forcing pro-life pregnancy help organizations to disseminate a state-sponsored message effectively referring for abortions.

Named “The Reproductive FACT Act” by its authors and passed through both houses of the State Legislature on a party-line vote, the bill is expected to be challenged in court by National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA). Alliance Defending Freedom and Pacific Justice Institute have also been involved in opposition to the bill since its introduction in late April.

“This bill is nothing short of a state-sponsored attack on women by the highly profitable abortion industry,” Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., president of Heartbeat International, which has 45 of its nearly 2,000 affiliates in California, said. “Women desperately need emotional support and practical resources during an unexpected pregnancy. Gov. Brown has made it more difficult for women to find the help they need to make the healthiest decision for everyone involved in an unexpected pregnancy.”

Tweet This: AB 775 signed by #California Gov. Brown, forcing #prolife groups to refer for #abortion

The law will force 150 local pregnancy help non-profits, including the 74 state-licensed free ultrasound facilities, to give each of its clients the following disclaimer, which includes the phone number of a county social services office where a client could obtain an abortion covered by Medi-Cal.

The notice, which the law specifies must either be posted as a public notice in “22-point type,” “distributed to all clients in no less than 14-point font” or distributed digitally “at the time of check-in or arrival,” applies to all of the entities—even those licensed by the state.

“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].”

Meanwhile, pregnancy help centers that do not offer medical services will be required to post the following signage in two “clear and conspicuous” places—“in the entrance of the facility and at least one additional area where clients wait to receive services,” as well as in “any print and digital advertising materials including Internet Web sites”.

The font required is to be “in no less than 48-point type” and will read as follows:

“This facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the State of California and has no licensed medical provider who provides or directly supervises the provision of services.”

The bill had sat on Gov. Brown’s desk since passing a party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled State Senate Sept. 4. An effective date for the law has not been announced, but such a date would only come after a court battle that is likely to follow. Similar government-sponsored speech for pregnancy centers has been struck down as unconstitutional in Austin (TX), Baltimore and Montgomery County (MD) and New York City.

“We must really be hurting the abortion business if they have to come after us and have us advertise for them,” Marie Leatherby, Director of Sacramento Life Center, a state-licensed medical facility, said. “For 44 years, we have offered compassionate care to thousands of women with unplanned or unsupported pregnancies. Our patients and our community love us, and we keep our doors open because they believe in us and our mission.

“Now we are forced to fight this in the courts, as it goes against our first Amendment Right to freedom of speech and to live according to our conscience.”

Robin Strom, who has served for 25 years as Executive Director for Marin Pregnancy Clinic–a state-licensed medical clinic offering free prenatal care and Pap smears among its suite of services–said the opposition and prejudice behind the bill was striking.

“AB 775 has shown more animosity toward clinics and centers in California than we have ever seen before,” Strom said.

“By providing free excellent prenatal care, we are offering women another way out while facing an unexpected pregnancy instead of abortion. California’s pro-life clinics and centers are cutting into the abortion industry’s profits. Abortion providers aren’t happy with us and clearly want to stop us.”

http://pregnancyhelpnews.com/breaking-california-governor-signs-anti-pregnancy-center-law