Supreme Court to review law requiring notices on free abortions at pregnancy-service centers
Activists on both sides awaiting last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion access. Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review a California law that requires licensed pregnancy-related medical clinics to post notices about free and low-cost contraception and abortion services.
The challenge by three anti-abortion nonprofits contends the law violates their right to free speech and free exercise of religion under the First Amendment. The religiously affiliated nonprofits contend the law targets crisis pregnancy centers that counsel against abortion. USA Today, the Washington Post and the Associated Press have stories.
The law, known as the Reproductive FACT Act, also requires unlicensed organizations to include disclaimers that they are not a licensed medical facility in their ads in large fonts and in as many as 13 languages, according to the cert petition. Facilities that provide ultrasounds and pregnancy testing are required to disclose when there is no licensed medical professional employed there.
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The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had refused to block the law in an October decision (PDF).
The case is National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra.
The SCOTUSblog case page is here, along with the cert petition (PDF) and the state response (PDF).
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