OpenHeaven.com - This State’s Pro-life Pregnancy Centers Now Ordered to Promote Abortion

"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)—[ http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/court-rules-california-preg nancy-centers-must-promote-abortion - 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..."

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Source: http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/ - www.breakingchristiannews.com/

This State's Pro-life Pregnancy Centers Now Ordered to Promote Abortion