(Washington, DC) — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a California law that mandates pregnancy counseling centers to tell their patients that subsidized abortions are available elsewhere.
The Court agreed Monday to take up the 2015 law, requiring the centers, including those run by churches, post or distribute notices that read “California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to contraception and abortion.” Religiously affiliated clinics immediately challenged the law, arguing they were being compelled to communicate a message that is offensive to their beliefs.
California Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra defended the law, saying more than half of California’s 700-thousand annual pregnancies are unplanned, and many women are unaware of the public programs available to them.
The LA Times reports that “the challengers say the disclosure law violates the 1st Amendment because it forces the faith-based pregnancy centers to send a message that conflicts with their aim of encouraging childbirth, not abortion.
It will be the second major case this term in which a conservative, religious-rights plaintiff is challenging a liberal state law on free-speech grounds — and both came from the same lawyers. The Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom sued on behalf of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple and was charged with violating the state’s civil rights law. The justices are due to hear his appeal on Dec. 5.”
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