US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

It's no secret that I've publicly struggled for a decade with the lack of logic in the minds of America's right-wing Christians. large numbers of them -- a minority of America's population -- are now running the state and federal government, thanks to gerrymandering. 

Given all the regulations that Republican state governments have put on Planned Parenthood -- including the width of their hallways and the size of closets (restrictions that render existing facilities not qualifying to operate) -- it's mind-boggling to see them go before the Supreme Court and argue that fake pregnancy counseling centers are legit and cannot be subject to state laws because they are run by Christians. Any attempt to govern them by laws is an illegal attack on their religious freedoms. 

The test of these perceived freedoms is now before the US Supreme Court, in the first abortion-related case of the Trump administration. 

Any Woman Can is part of a nationwide network of over 3,000 “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) established by evangelical Christians to dissuade women from having abortions.  Presenting themselves as women's health centers that support women when Planned Parenthood closes down, unable to meet state laws, these so-called clients typically have no licensed medical professionals on staff. 

The Any Woman Can website says it offers a comprehensive overview of health care options open to women. This is a blatant lie. Other members of this network are Pregnancy Care Clinics and Informed Choices, also arguing before the Supreme Court On Tuesday.

When arguments begin before the US Supreme Court on Tuesday, "an attorney representing the Christian-run Pregnancy Care Clinic in El Cajon, California, will argue before the high court that California violated the clinic’s constitutional right to free speech by enacting a law that requires centers that are licensed as family planning facilities to notify women that the state offers free or low-cost birth control and abortion services. The law also requires pregnancy centers to disclose if they have no medical providers on staff." writes Huff Po's Laura Bassett.

“They’re forcing us to use our walls as a billboard to promote abortion,” Pregnancy Care Clinic Executive Director Josh McClure told Reuters. The clinic is being represented by the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates legal organization (NIFLA).

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) will defend the state’s 2015 Reproductive FACT Act, which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld last year.

“Information is power,” Becerra said in a statement, “and all women should have access to the information they need when making personal health care decisions.”

This case -- and several others before the Court -- argue that requiring health centers to display notice of all healthcare options available to women in a state is an example of unlawful "compelled speech." 

Abortion rights advocates say the roughly 2,700 U.S. anti-abortion pregnancy centers, including around 200 in California, far outnumber facilities providing abortions.

California’s Reproductive FACT Act was passed by a Democratic-led legislature in 2015 and signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it in 2016, finding it did not discriminate based on viewpoint. The pregnancy centers appealed that ruling to the US Supreme Court.

Attorney Kristen Waggoner, affiliated with Alliance Defending Freedom, and a lawyer representing the centers, said the law targets only these facilities. “Pointing the way to abortion is a violation of conscience,” Waggoner added.

Reuters further explains the objectives of these fake women's health centers. The El Cajon facility calls itself a “front line ministry” supported by churches and other donors, and offers Bible study for clients and opportunities for volunteers to spread the gospel to visitors to the facility.

“Once they have accepted Christ,” the clinic’s website says, “we begin a discipleship program with them and contact a partner church to hand them off to.”

Its website address, www.unplannedparenthood.org, resembles Planned Parenthood, which provides healthcare services and abortions in clinics around the country. Pregnancy Care Clinic Executive Director Josh McClure said his facility’s name was chosen because most clients have unplanned pregnancies.

Adrienne Kimmell, a vice president at the abortion rights group NARAL, said the name was not coincidental, adding, “Almost all of these places have names that are really confusing and they’re usually in the same city block as other centers that actually do provide a full range of reproductive healthcare options.”

McClure denied these facilities use deception. Regarding abortion, McClure said, “We are very upfront that it is not a service we are going to provide.” In fact, many of the centers offer no birth control referrals and almost nothing to do with women's health services.

One must ask if these facilities are qualifying for some federal funding, as Republicans argue they are a health care replacements for Planned Parenthood. The argument before the Court involves free speech and not the mess of information created for women seeking clarity around their health care options. Having just spent 20 minutes on Google, using simple search phrases, I assure you that it's the Wild West of information out there. And women -- NOT free speech -- the the victims. ~ Anne 

Related: How To Talk About Abortion The New York Times

Must Read re Justice Kennedy's reprimand of Justice Sotomayer after she visited website of group testifying in the suit. Supreme Court rule: {Other) justices shouldn't conduct independent research Washington Post