More attacks in Congress, Supreme Court on women’s reproductive rights

The appetite for attacking reproductive freedom seems to know no bounds. Just last month, the GOP Congress held a hearing on a bill to ban abortion beforemost women even know they’re pregnant.

They snuck fetal “personhood” language into their tax reform bill, putting tax breaks for fetuses above women’s bodily autonomy. And Donald Trump recently rolled out plans to take away birth control coverage from more than 60 million women.

California has long been a beacon of light in the face of such attacks, moving to protect and expand reproductive freedom. Unfortunately, we are not immune. Fringe, right-wing organizations have funneled millions of dollars into a series of lawsuits to undermine Califor- nia’s Reproductive FACT Act, the first ever state law to require pregnancy centers to share crucial reproductive health information with clients.

The Supreme Court will decide whether those organizations can deny women that information, in the first abortion rights case in the era of Trump and Neil Gorsuch.

The FACT Act, authored in 2015 by Assemblymembers David Chiu (D-San Francisco) and Autumn Burke (D-Inglewood), helps ensure that women have access to accurate reproductive health information so they can make the best decisions for themselves and their families. It requires licensed clinics that provide pregnancy-related care to share a simple notification about free or low- cost family planning services that the state provides, including abortion and prenatal care, and provide a phone number for the local social services office. Unlicensed facilities must inform clients that they aren’t a licensed medical provider.

The effort was inspired by an undercover investigation that NARAL conducted into socalled “crisis pregnancy centers,” fake clinics that target pregnant women with false advertising and use medical misinformation, shame and manipulation to bully them into continuing their pregnancies regardless of their circumstances. Ninetyone percent of the CPCs our investigators visited falsely linked abortion with health problems and even death. A CPC worker told one investigator that if she had an abortion, she could never have a happy pregnancy.

The FACT Act was sponsored by NARAL Pro- Choice California, then-Attorney General Kamala Harris and Black Women for Wellness. It passed with large majorities in the state legislature and had backing from dozens of organizations and faith leaders.

In a 2015 poll, 69 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Catholics expressed support for requiring licensed facilities to inform women of state programs that provide financial assistance for reproductive health services.

Anti-choice groups are trampling the will of California voters. Previously, every federal court in California, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had rejected their petition to temporarily enjoin the law. Now this case will be the Supreme Court’s first test on abortion rights since Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation, and could set the stage for abortion rights for decades to come.

Nothing in the Reproductive FACT Act prevents anti-choice organizations from preaching their message. The FACT Act balances the compelling interest to share time-sensitive information that impacts women’s health with organizations’ ability to freely express their views. It is a reasonable requirement that the courts should uphold.

The relentless effort to keep women in the dark about their healthcare options tells you everything you need to know about the organizations suing to block the Reproductive FACT Act. We must ensure that California continues to fight for our legacy as a state that understands and supports the right of women to make their own reproductive health decisions and determine their own futures.