• Pregnancy centers do not have to offer clients abortion information.

WASHINGTON >> The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a California law that requires faith-based crisis pregnancy centers to notify patients that the state offers subsidized medical care, including abortions.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices said the disclosure rule likely amounts to compelled speech that violates the First Amendment. The court did not strike down the California law, but sent the case back to lower courts with instructions that enforcement of key provisions be immediately blocked while the legal challenge continues.

California lawmakers passed the law three years ago, forcing the pregnancy centers, which strongly oppose abortion, to notify women that the procedure is an option for them. The state had been concerned that some of the more than 200 centers used deceptive advertising and counseling practices to confuse or intimidate women. The law also requires centers to advise women if they do not have a licensed medical professional on staff.

A federal judge and the 9th Circuit Court had refused to block the state’s disclosure law on the grounds it could regulate “professional speech” to protect patients and customers from misleading or deceptive marketing. But Justice Clarence Thomas said the centers are “likely to succeed” on their First Amendment challenge against the law. He was joined by four other conservatives in the case of National Institute of Family and Life Advocates vs. Becerra.

Speaking for the court, Thomas said the California law unfairly targeted pregnancy centers that oppose abortion. “Here, for example, licensed clinics must provide a government drafted script about the availability of state-services. One of those services is abortion, the very practice the (centers) are devoted to opposing,” he said.

The court overruled the 9th Circuit and said judges should have blocked enforcement of the disclosure law on First Amendment grounds.