Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), non-medical and faith-based facilities operated under the guise of assisting pregnant women with their options, are not required to to tell these women about their abortion options, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
According to the Washington Post, the 5-to-4 decision, in which the court’s conservatives ruled in favor of the crisis centers, argued that California’s requirement for crisis centers to tell their clients about the state’s services, including abortion, “likely violates the First Amendment.”
As the Daily Dot previously reported, under the state’s Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care and Transparency (FACT) Act of 2015, CPCs were required to post information inside centers disclosing that “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.” Centers operating without medical licenses nor licensed doctors needed to disclose this as well.
But under the SCOTUS ruling, CPCs, with the goal of driving pregnant people away from seeking abortion, will be allowed to continue to provide women with incomplete, false information about their pregnancy options under the guise of “free speech.”
“…Abortion [is] the very practice that petitioners [crisis pregnancy centers] are devoted to opposing. By requiring petitioners to inform women how they can obtain state-subsidized abortions—at the same time petitioners try to dissuade women from choosing that option—the licensed notice [requiring the inclusion of state services] plainly ‘alters the content’ of petitioners’ speech,” Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the decision, penned.
Fake women’s health centers vastly outnumber *actual* abortion clinics in the U.S. – and they rely heavily on misleading or outright lying to women about reproductive healthcare to dissuade them from having an abortion. https://t.co/tEbrxlwYFx #ExposeFakeClinics #EndTheLies pic.twitter.com/OakLGaABOu
— Reproductive Freedom for All (@reproforall) March 13, 2018
Across Twitter, reproductive rights organizations and advocates denounced the decision, stating that it prevents women from making informed decisions about their pregnancies.
JUST IN: SCOTUS voted 5-4 in favor of fake women's health centers. Despite today's ruling, know that we will never stop fighting for everyone’s right to have medically accurate information about all of their options. #EndTheLies https://t.co/IyULv1FhDD
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) June 26, 2018
Oh jfc. #SCOTUS just ruled in favor of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC's) in CA case.
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) June 26, 2018
If you're not familiar with CPC's: They lie to women to manipulate, shame, and scare them away from abortion. SCOTUS basically just gave them stronger 1A rights than abortion providers.
SCOTUS ruled today against the California law regulating fake health clinics.
— Media Matters (@mmfa) June 26, 2018
These crisis pregnancy centers deceive and hurt people — it's past time the media report that: https://t.co/A3DB3YY3T2 pic.twitter.com/xUiohYvww1
https://twitter.com/cagoldberglaw/status/1011628417371000832
Lets also not forget that there are two shit #SCOTUS decisions today. They also ruled for anti-abortion centers, saying they can deny women access to knowledge about our reproductive rights.
— Jenn | Reappropriate (@reappropriate) June 26, 2018
The all-male majority decision, however, has been celebrated by people alleging that these clinics aren’t anti-abortion, but “pro-life,” calling the medical information required to be provided by medical doctors (but not these unlicensed centers) “advertising for the abortion industry.”
SCOTUS rules against California law forcing crisis pregnancy centers to provide information about abortion, saying that it likely violates the Constitution. A win for the pro-life movement 🙏🏽
— Madison Gesiotto Gilbert (@madisongesiotto) June 26, 2018
VICTORY: Thank you to SCOTUS for ruling in favor of pro-life pregnancy resource centers!
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) June 26, 2018
No one should be forced to provide free advertising for the abortion industry – least of all pro-life pregnancy centers who are working to promote life, not destroy it. #GiveFreeSpeechLife
Debra Hauser, president of sex education nonprofit Advocates for Youth, said in a statement sent to the Daily Dot that the ruling was “yet another blow to truth.”
“At a time when Crisis Pregnancy Centers outnumber abortion clinics, and the president lauds ideological propaganda as fact–today’s Supreme Court decision is yet another blow to truth. The simple fact is that Crisis Pregnancy Centers offer deceptive and often unlicensed patient care, and perpetuate a culture where people are shamed for their personal healthcare choices. This ruling will only embolden fake clinics to deceive even more people,” Hauser’s statement reads.