A WIN FOR LIFE: Supreme Court Justices Rip CA Law Forcing Pregnancy Centers to Advertise Abortion

On Tuesday, the justices of the Supreme Court sounded as if they are ready to shred the California law that requires pregnancy centers to notify women that the state offers subsidies for abortion.

That law was adopted in California in 2015, and forced the pregnancy centers to post a prominent notice if they had “no licensed medical provider” available. If the centers were licensed, they were forced to notify clients that the state offers “free or low-cost” contraception, prenatal care and abortion. . .

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy saw the law as violating the laws of free speech, calling the required notice “mandating speech” that “alters the content of the message.” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said that California has “other means to provide messages. … It’s pretty unusual to force a private speaker to do that for you under the 1st Amendment.”

After Michael P. Farris, a lawyer for the centers, said advertisements, including billboards, would have to offer the information in large print and in 13 languages, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg turned to the lawyer for California and stated, “If you have to say that, those two sentences in 13 different languages, it can be very burdensome,” she said . . .

As Politico reported, “California Deputy Solicitor General Joshua Klein acknowledged that the law might be unconstitutional in some applications, but he encouraged the justices to return the issue to the lower courts to address specific concerns involving certain plaintiffs. That did not sit well with Kennedy. “You want me to have a remand to have them tell the court what a billboard is?” Kennedy scoffed. (Read more from “A WIN FOR LIFE: Supreme Court Justices Rip CA Law Forcing Pregnancy Centers to Advertise Abortion” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.