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Crisis pregnancy centers in New York are claiming a victory in round one in the state's latest legal battle over abortion.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Thursday, February 28, he is withdrawing the subpoenas that he issued in January. The subpoenas demanded that crisis pregnancy centers turn over reams of information about their operating procedures to determine whether the centers have engaged in "false advertising and deceptive business practices" and the unlicensed practice of medicine.

The subpoenas covered 24 pregnancy centers and also demanded the names of all staff members, their credentials, training materials, promotional information, and all policies relating to client referrals.

Attorneys for the centers recently filed petitions to quash the subpoenas in seven separate state courts. They argue that the attorney general lacks evidence and is attempting to regulate non-commercial speech and the right to free association, protected under the Constitution. They say that Spitzer's legal actions stem from his close ties with the abortion-rights movement.

"We hope this outcome in the abortion capital of the United States sends a clear message nationwide that Pregnancy Resource Centers will no longer allow their First Amendment rights to be trammeled," chief litigation counsel Nathan Adams of the Christian Legal Society said in a statement. Adams is representing five of the subpoenaed centers and three national parent organizations.

"This is an unexpected victory for the crisis pregnancy centers and for the First Amendment," says Vincent McCarthy, senior counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents one of five pregnancy centers targeted by the attorney general.

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp says the move is designed to foster out-of-court settlements that the attorney general hopes to reach with the centers. But while one of the subpoenaed CPCs—Birthright of Victor New York, Inc.—has agreed to terms, other centers say they are not interested.

"The attorney general preyed on the smallest CPC in the state and got them to cave on severe restrictions of their First Amendment rights," says Expectant Mother Care (EMC) founder Chris Slattery, whose five centers are under investigation. "This is the most restrictive set of regulations on a CPC's operations ever established."

The agreement requires Birthright to inform those who inquire about abortion that:

• The organization does not provide abortions or abortion referrals.
  
  
• It must disclose verbally and in writing that it is not a licensed medical provider qualified to diagnose pregnancy.
  
  
• Its advertising must state that its pregnancy tests are self-administered, and it must tell those who call or visit that it is not a medical facility.
  
  

Dopp says the agreement is closely modeled on consent decrees that two previous New York attorneys general reached with CPCs, decrees that outlined how the centers should conduct their operations.

Slattery, whose centers are being represented by the ACLJ, says the settlement will "turn off most abortion-minded women" from visiting CPCs. "They don't want us counseling women out of an abortion, period."

But Slattery and other CPC directors say this is exactly what their centers do. They are so successful that they have become the "effective competitors of abortion clinics."

Alleged Deception
Other centers under investigation include those operated by Care Net, Heartbeat International, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA). The centers offer free commercially available pregnancy tests and counseling, childbirth and parenting classes, and medical referrals.

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February (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46