By Dave Andrusko
Pro-abortionist seethed in 2018 when, on his last day on the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion in which he described a 2015 California law known ironically as the “California Reproductive FACT Act” as a “paradigmatic example of the serious threat presented when government seeks to impose its own message in the place of individual speech, thought, and expression.”
In a nutshell under the umbrella of the so-called “Reproductive FACT Act,” the state of California was requiring both pregnancy help centers that offer medical services and those who don’t (as one attorney put it) to “act as a ventriloquist’s dummy for a government message”—abortion.
The suit, brought by the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, challenged a California law requiring licensed pregnancy resource centers to disclose where women could receive free or low-cost abortions, and requiring unlicensed centers to insert state-dictated material in their advertising, thus violating the First Amendment rights of all pregnancy resource centers in the state.
The basic argument for the Reproductive FACT Act is that the pregnancy help centers were allegedly misleading women, a charge for which there is precious little evidence. As for those who were not licensed medical centers, they had an obligation to all-but-scream to pregnant women that they weren’t licensed medical facilities.
The Abortion Industry bitterly decried the 5-4 decision in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. Four years later they are still on a crusade to ruin pregnancy help centers.
The other day—June 28—Sen. Elizabeth got in the harassment act. “Warren said she has co-introduced legislation on the federal level, the ‘Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act,’ which would be aimed at stopping those ‘front’centers from employing false advertising to dissuade pregnant women from getting abortions false advertising to dissuade pregnant women from getting abortions,” according to Gayla Cawley of the Boston Herald. They “mislead and deceive” women, she insisted.
I suspect what really sticks in Warren’s craw is the “proliferation” of women helping centers.
Warren urged the Legislature to seek similar legislation on the state level, saying that in Massachusetts, crisis pregnancy centers outnumber legitimate abortion services by a “3-1″ margin.
3-1. Sounds about right.
Christopher Bell is co-founder and president of Good Counsel Homes. He has worked with homeless women, pregnant mothers and babies for 37 years. Mr. Bell wrote a piece that appeared yesterday in the Wall Street Journal under the headline “Elizabeth Warren Smears Pro-Life Charities: we tell women the truth: Abortion isn’t their only option.”
It’s a wonderful read. And you can see instantly why the Elizabeth Warrens of this world hate them so: they offer an alternative to abortion. (So much for “choice.”) Let me quote briefly:
Want to talk about misleading? Nothing is more misleading than the claim that abortion is simply healthcare, that terminating a pregnancy is the key to a happy life free from unwanted burdens. My experience of talking with and helping more than 4,000 women at Good Counsel over almost four decades tells me that the pain of abortion can be devastating. Nobody should have to face it alone.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson “has brought renewed attention to the work done by maternity homes and crisis pregnancy centers,” he writes. “’Love them both’ is not just a sign we carry at the March for Life every year. It’s the key to ensuring that frightened and abandoned pregnant women understand that they have options other than abortion.”
Of course, with regards to Ms. Warren, Bell is wasting his breath, right? Probably, but he ends with this gracious invitation:
Ms. Warren is welcome to visit Good Counsel anytime she wants. I think she will see that we don’t mislead or deceive anyone. We stick to the truth, delivered with compassion and mercy.