Some pro-life crisis pregnancy centers will be required to point women to facilities that provide abortions under a new law signed by Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown.
Under the law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, licensed centers that provide medical services must inform clients that there are state-run programs that provide abortions as well as contraceptive and prenatal services,
Reason.com reports.
According to the law, all licensed clinics, including crisis pregnancy centers which counsel against abortion, must either post a notice or give one to patients.
The notice reads: "California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women. To determine whether you qualify, contact the county social services office at [insert the telephone number]."
Some CPCs are not licensed because they do not provide medical services such as ultrasounds. Those centers do not have to post the notice about abortion services, but do have to disclose that they are not licensed medical facilities.
There are about 170 crisis pregnancy centers in California, and about 40 percent of those are licensed medical clinics, according to
NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The law was sponsored by Democrats David Chiu and Autumn Burke in the state assembly. It was backed by NARAL Pro-Choice California and Black Women for Wellness.
"A growing and alarming movement is working to mislead women in order to achieve their political ideology," Chiu said, according to the Associated Press.
But Republican Assemblywoman Shannon Grove said the bill forces clinics against their will to pay for and distribute abortion referral information.
"Does the government have a right to tell a newspaper what to write, a preacher what to preach, a private school what to teach? Of course not," Grove said. "So why is it OK for the government to force pro-life pregnancy centers against their will to advertise and promote government abortion services?"
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