High court rejects law targeting anti-abortion pregnancy centers

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a major blow to a California law requiring anti-abortion pregnancy centers to inform women about publicly funded abortion and contraception services.

The 5-4 ruling by Justice Clarence Thomas, with the court’s conservatives in the majority, said the law “likely” violates the First Amendment as a form of compelled speech.

“Licensed clinics must provide a government drafted script about the availability of statesponsored services, as well as contact information for how to obtain them,” the court said. “One of those services is abortion — the very practice that petitioners are devoted to opposing.”

The decision was aimed at a liberal state government seeking to notify pregnant women of the right to an abortion. But it could have unintended consequences. Laws in more conservative states requiring women seeking abortions to view ultrasounds or learn about the growth of their fetus now could be at risk.

Justice Stephen Breyer read a synopsis of the four liberal justices’ dissent from the bench. “If a state can lawfully require a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion about adoption services ... why should it not be able to require a medical counselor to tell a woman seeking prenatal care about childbirth and abortion services?” he said.

California’s law requires licensed pregnancy centers to post notices about free or lowcost state programs that include abortion services. It also requires unlicensed centers to inform clients that they are not medical facilities. Challengers called it a form of compelled speech.

The justices were divided over the requirements during oral argument in March.

The court’s conservatives, including California’s Anthony Kennedy, complained that the law targets only clinics that counsel women to complete their pregnancies. But liberal justices compared it to laws, upheld by the high court, that require doctors performing abortions to advise women about alternatives.

Although the Supreme Court made abortion legal nationwide in 1973 and has struck down state restrictions that block access for women, it has defended free speech rights in a number of recent cases.