The Supreme Court ruled today that so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” do not have to make it clear to clients that they are not licensed medical facilities.
Crisis pregnancy centers counsel women to choose parenting or adoption rather than terminating pregnancies. A California law said the centers needed to disclose that they were not licensed medical facilities. But the court ruled against the state law.
"They do have registered nurses on staff, they do give ultrasounds but I certainly don’t think that they try to portray themselves as a medical clinic," said Mary Taylor, president of Pro-Life Utah, an advocacy group that cheered the court’s ruling.
But states could still challenge the centers for misleading clients under consumer protection laws, Teneille Brown, a University of Utah law professor, said.
"But the problem is for women in states like Utah, and a lot of red states in the west, you’re not going to get an attorney general who’s going to bring that kind of a lawsuit against the crisis pregnancy centers," Brown said.
The court also ruled that these centers do not have to give their clients information on abortion providers.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
