BREAKING: Supreme Court gives pregnancy crisis centers a win in New Jersey

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of pro-life advocates in a ruling in First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. v New Jersey. The New Jersey attorney general's office has demanded to see 10 years of fundraising records from the crisis pregnancy center, and the First Choice Women's Resource Centers have said that this ask is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

The ruling allows the First Choice Women's Resource Centers to return to the lower court to argue their point against the investigation, which is not immediately cut off by the ruling. "Held: First Choice has established a present injury to its First Amendment associational rights sufficient to confer Article III standing," the ruling reads.

"First Choice has established a present injury to its First Amendment associational rights and therefore has standing," Justice Gorsuch writes. "An injury in fact arises when a defendant burdens a plaintiff’s constitutional rights, and government demands for a charity’s private donor information have just that effect. Such demands inevitably discourage association with groups engaged in protected First Amendment advocacy and encourage groups to cease or modify protected advocacy the government disfavors."

The New Jersey attorney general's office had "served a subpoena on First Choice, commanding the group to produce 28 categories of documents, including documents reflecting the names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment of all individuals who had made donations to First Choice by any means other than through one specific webpage," the Court writes in summarizing the case.

"Effectively, that demand required First Choice to provide personal information about donors who gave through two other websites, through the group’s various social media pages, by mail, in person, or by any other means. The subpoena warned twice that failure to comply may render the group liable for contempt of court and other penalties."

New Jersey's interest was in finding out if there was a discrepancy between what First Choice Women's Resource Centers told donors and what they told patients. Pregnancy crisis centers have come under fire from pro-abortion groups because they are specifically centers for expectant mothers that do not provide pregnancy termination. 

Pregnancy crisis centers are designed to provide the alternative of motherhood to pregnant women, providing testing, counseling, and other services, often charitable services, to help women who decide to keep their children become good mothers to those children. These centers are often faith-based and do not encourage chemical or surgical abortion. 

These centers also often slightly obfuscate their intention on the patient-facing side, as many women who feel they have no other option but abortion have not considered alternatives to terminating their pregnancies. The patient-facing side encourages patients to "learn more about the abortion pill, abortion procedures, and your options in New Jersey."

By this, they mean patients should learn how horrible it is. Donors are told the mission is to "motivate today’s teens to consider the benefits of practicing abstinence until marriage." The New Jersey attorney general's office sees these as contradictory, instead of two sides of the exact same mission.

In New Jersey, it is legal to terminate pregnancies at all stages of gestation, even up to 9 months. Minors are permitted to gain an abortion without parental consent or knowledge, and there are no mandated waiting periods. Abortion is on the rise in New Jersey, with nearly 60,000 in 2024 alone. The national number of abortions is nearing 1 million per year.
 

 

SCOTUS: FIRST CHOICE WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTERS, INC. v. DAVENPORT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY by The Post Millennial