Chiu at high court with his law on pregnancy centers
California Assemblyman David Chiu has never been inside the U.S. Supreme Court to hear oral arguments, so Tuesday will be a big deal. After all, he’ll be there to see the court take up a law that he wrote — and one he believes is crucial to the health and wellbeing of California women.
At issue are “crisis pregnancy centers,” pro-life facilities that provide women with pregnancy testing, prenatal vitamins, parenting classes and other services. But what they don’t provide? Abortions or birth control, even though they’re often listed in online directories under those very categories.
Chiu’s law, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015, requires all health clinics with a doctor on staff to tell clients about the range of low-cost reproductive health services available under California law, including contraception and abortion. Clinics without a doctor must tell clients they’re not licensed by the state.
A federal appeals court upheld the law in 2016, saying it’s not a violation of free speech to require that clinics provide accurate information. Multiple clinics appealed that ruling, and the Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of the law before its term ends in June.
Chiu was scheduled to take an overnight flight to Washington on Monday night and speak at a rally Tuesday morning before heading inside to hear
the oral arguments at 10 a.m. He said that constitutional law was his favorite subject at Harvard and that his first job after graduating was Democratic counsel to the U.S. Senate’s subcommittee on the Constitution.
“It’s pretty intense to go back now as a lawmaker to hear arguments about a law that I authored,” he said. “I’m excited and nervous.”
There are believed to be about 2,700 crisis pregnancy centers around the country, and a few hundred in California. They exist to encourage women to give birth, but abortion rights advocates say they give fake information to pregnant women, including telling them abortions are linked to increased risk of breast cancer and depression, claims that have been debunked by scientific studies.
Lealah Pollock, a family physician at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF, said it’s “really appalling” that these facilities lie to women.
She recently had a woman come to her for an abortion after seeking the procedure at a crisis pregnancy center, which had advertising implying it offered abortions. At her first appointment, the center told her it was too early in her pregnancy to get an abortion and scheduled a follow-up appointment, Pollock said. At the second appointment, she was told she was required to go home and think about it some more.
Pollock said the delays meant the woman was too far into her pregnancy to take the abortion pill and required a surgical procedure to end the pregnancy instead.
“She was just so angry this clinic never told her they didn’t provide abortions,” Pollock said. “I can say that from a medical perspective, having these centers out there and completely unregulated is harmful to women and is really just unfair.”
Kevin Theriot, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the clinics, previously told The Chronicle, “Forcing anyone to provide free advertising for the abortion industry is unthinkable, especially when it’s the government doing the forcing.”
Chiu said he’s been called “a San Francisco communist” for the law, but shrugged off the criticism.
“We often take our progressive values in San Francisco for granted, but in the Supreme Court on March 20, the fight will be front and center,” he said. Behind the number: You’ve probably seen them by now: the 18 huge red and yellow billboards dotting the city with mayoral candidate Angela Alioto’s face and the words “Accomplished. Housed 11,362 Homeless.”
What did she do? Let them all move into her guest room? Well, no. The number may seem unbelievable, but the billboards do have some basis in fact. The figure comes from a report evaluating the city’s “Ten Year Plan to Abolish Chronic Homelessness,” an initiative begun by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 and crafted by a council headed by Alioto.
By 2014, the city had moved 11,362 homeless single adults into permanent supportive housing. Another 8,806 were given bus tickets home to receptive family members or friends through the city’s Homeward Bound program.
(Hey, any real politician would have taken credit for those, too. Come on, Angela!)
Obviously, all that effort was great, but it made little dent in the city’s stubborn, increasingly in-your-face homeless population. Alioto says that’s exactly why she wants voters to send her to Room 200 in June.
She thinks the city’s muchhyped Navigation Centers — more relaxed, service-rich homeless shelters — are OK, but the city needs to focus far more on permanent housing solutions so people don’t wind up back on the streets.
“Or you might as well just throw the money away,” Alioto said, adding she would focus her first 100 days as mayor on cleaning the streets and moving those in tents inside.
“It would be me actually doing the hard work, and it is hard work,” she said.
Now that would make a good billboard. That’s entertainment: Are you free tonight? Come to the Marsh at 1062 Valencia St. to see an odd trio: Chronicle columnist and former Mayor Willie Brown, comedian Will Durst and yours truly.
I’ll be the guest at the first of a monthly series of political discussions called “Will and Willie: 2018 Midterm Election Specials.” Tickets are free, but it’s first-come, first-served. Doors open at 5:30, and the show starts at 6 p.m.
Also, it’s Brown’s 84th birthday.
“He’s older than the bridge with his name on it, but less apt to rust or crack,” quipped Paul Wells, the show’s host. “We have been prohibited by the Marsh from using candles. Eighty-four would cause the fire marshal to shut the old dump down.”
By the way, that bridge tidbit is true. Brown was born in Mineola, Texas on March 20, 1934 — eight months after construction on the Bay Bridge started, but more than 21⁄2 years before its opening.