Can the government compel pro-life pregnancy care centers to provide free advertising for abortion clinics? That is the issue the United States Supreme Court will decide in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra. The case involves a constitutional challenge to California’s Reproductive FACT Act which requires licensed medical centers that offer free, pro-life help to pregnant women to post a disclosure saying that California provides free or low-cost abortion and contraception services.
The FACT Act is just another example of how pregnancy care centers are being targeted by pro-abortion legislators who are intent on forcing them to promote a pro-abortion message. A similar law was passed in Illinois amending the Health Care Right of Conscience Act to require pro-life medical professionals to inform women of the “benefits” of abortion and where they can have an abortion. Thankfully, attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom, Mauck & Baker, and the Thomas More Society, filed suit and were able to secure injunctions in both state and federal court, stopping the state from enforcing the unconstitutional law.
Because the NIFLA case will have a significant effect on our cases in Illinois, and will determine whether pregnancy care centers across the country will remain free to refuse to advertise for the abortion industry, Mauck & Baker is going to submit an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of as many Illinois pregnancy care centers as possible. We all must do what we can to stand together and push back against these efforts to target pregnancy care centers because of their pro-life message. Please pray for this case and for our work preparing the brief.