A California law that requires “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide information about abortion met a skeptical reception at Supreme Court arguments on Tuesday.
The centers, which are often affiliated with religious groups, seek to persuade women to carry their pregnancies to term or to offer their offspring for adoption. The law requires centers licensed by the state to post notices that free or low-cost abortion, contraception and prenatal care are available to low-income women through public programs, and to provide the phone number for more information.
Justices across the ideological spectrum said they suspected that the law had singled out centers run by opponents of abortion. Justice Elena Kagan said she was concerned that the law had been “gerrymandered” to address only some providers, something she said would pose a serious First Amendment problem.
A second part of the law, concerning unlicensed clinics, does not require them to post notices about the availability of abortion but does require them to disclose that they are not licensed by the state. In advertising, they must do so in large type, often in many languages.
“This is an undue burden,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said, “and that should suffice to invalidate the statute.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that part of the law, at least in some of its possible applications, was “burdensome and wrong.”
Some justices expressed frustration with the thin court record in the case, which arrived at the Supreme Court at an early stage in the proceedings. That left open the possibility that the justices could return the case to the lower courts for a full trial.
Read the full story at The New York Times
