"It's bad enough if the
government tells you what you can't say, but a law that tells you what
you must say—under threat of severe punishment—is even more unjust and
dangerous." -Matt Bowman, ADF.
(California)—[PregnancyHelp News/via LifeSiteNews] Non-profit
medical clinics that exist to provide life-affirming alternatives to
abortion in the state of California will be forced to promote abortion
or face severe financial consequences, after the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld the state's so-called "Reproductive FACT Act" on Friday. (Photo: Shutterstock/via LifeSiteNews.com)
Signed into law Oct. 9, 2015, by Gov. Jerry
Brown, the act went into effect Jan. 1, 2016, but has been largely
unenforced while municipalities waited out a series of lawsuits
challenging the law's alleged infringement on free speech rights
guaranteed by the Constitution's First Amendment. This is the fifth time
a challenge has been turned away by the courts starting last December.
The law specifies that 75 pro-life pregnancy
centers offering ultrasounds—all of which are state-licensed entities
that operate completely free of taxpayer funds—post or disseminate a
state-mandated disclaimer notifying women in unexpected pregnancies of
state-covered abortions and contraception offered through Medi-Cal.
Most urgently, the clinics are required to
violate their deeply held religious beliefs by giving their patients the
phone number of a county social services agency where they can obtain
an abortion—a requirement the centers say amounts to an abortion
referral.
Meanwhile, as many as 100 community-funded
pregnancy centers that do not offer free ultrasound services will be
compelled to post and disseminate a statement notifying clients and even
website visitors that they do not offer medical services—a stipulation
similar to a 2009 Baltimore law that was struck down as
unconstitutional.
So far, the only known instances of the
law's enforcement have occurred in Los Angeles, where city attorney Mike
Feuer has leveraged an obscure law that mandates current signage for
local business to force pregnancy medical clinics to comply.
"It's bad enough if the government tells
you what you can't say, but a law that tells you what you must say—under
threat of severe punishment—is even more unjust and dangerous..."
Continue reading here.
Source: www.breakingchristiannews.com/
Topic: This State’s Pro-life Pregnancy Centers Now Ordered to Promote Abortion
