NRL News Today, in our pursuit of keeping pro-lifers up to date on the never-ending pro-abortion offensive against the true and the noble, has written or reposted innumerable stories about the war on pro-life pregnancy centers.
Sometimes Democrats—and they are all Democrats — pretend there is “cause” for suing, defunding, harassing problem pregnancy centers, but almost all of the time the excuses are awfully thin gruel.
Erin Hawley describes herself as a wife, mom of three, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, and a law professor at Regent University School of Law. She is a powerful litigator and a gifted writer. She is married to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
Mrs. Hawley wrote a piece that appeared today in World magazine under the headline, “The harassment of pro-life pregnancy centers must stop.”
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I’ll write about a few of the many important points she makes, but her opinion piece is very much worth reading in its entirety.
The primary villains of this piece—and right so—are Democrat state attorneys general whose malevolence is matched only by their dogged determination. Here’s the opening paragraph:
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, which returned the power to protect unborn life to the states, several state attorneys general in left-leaning states declared pro-life pregnancy centers public enemy No. 1. These centers provide hundreds of millions of dollars in free goods and services to women and children every year. And they have seen an unprecedented amount of violence—nearly 100 pregnancy centers have been vandalized, firebombed, or otherwise attacked since the Dobbs decision was leaked. Yet, instead of using their authority under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act or state laws to protect pregnancy centers from violence and intimidation, many of these attorneys general have piled on, using various lawfare tactics to harass and intimidate.
Her description grows more ominous.
Shortly after the Dobbs decision, 16 state attorneys general signed an open letter threatening pregnancy centers with various state enforcement actions. They expressed “concern” that pregnancy centers existed in their states at all, and especially that they outnumber abortion businesses 3-to-1. They alleged that—because the pro-life centers don’t perform abortions—they mislead women. The attorneys general pledged to continue to take “numerous actions” to impede pro-life pregnancy centers from speaking about the harms of abortion.
Hawley goes on from there to demonstrate that “These were not idle threats,” citing assault after assault on pro-life medical clinics. She begins with one investigation, instituted in 2022 by then Washington AG and now Gov-elect Bob Ferguson, which failed “to identify a single patient complaint or any purported violation of state law.” That didn’t deter. Ferguson “investigated what he called ‘possible’ deceptive marketing and ‘possible’ unfair collection and use of consumer data,” Hawley writes.
Her rogues’ gallery includes California Attorney General Rob Bonta, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, and New York Attorney General Letitia James who “sued 11 faith-based, pro-life pregnancy centers in her state and a network of affiliated pregnancy centers for claiming that abortion pill reversal was safe and effective.”
Hawley concludes
ADF filed suit on behalf of other New York pregnancy centers and obtained a preliminary injunction against James. The U.S. District Court compared her efforts to silence pro-life pregnancy centers to the dystopian “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s 1984, adding that “freedom of speech and thought ‘flows not from the beneficence of the state but from the inalienable rights of the person.’”
That’s exactly right. The First Amendment forbids government officials from picking sides in a political debate. They may not censor or shut down pregnancy centers for speaking about life-saving care. Pregnancy centers are there to help women when no one else will. And the Constitution allows them to provide this compassionate care and support without government harassment.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
The post Democrat AGs are Trying to Shut Down Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers appeared first on LifeNews.com.
