State Sued by Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

A group of pro-life pregnancy care centers have sued Vermont over a state law they claim will unconstitutionally infringe on their ability to advertise their services and counsel patients because they do not provide abortions.

Aspire Together, Inc., Branches Pregnancy Resources Center and the National Institute for Family and Life Advocates filed the suit last week in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont.

At issue in the lawsuit was a law passed in May that, among other things, seeks to crack down on alleged misinformation in the advertising made by pro-life pregnancy care centers.

The centers suing Vermont argue that the new law “censors the centers’ ability to advertise their free services” and “precludes centers from offering non-medical services, information, and counseling unless provided by a licensed health care provider.”

The lawsuit goes on to contend that the new law offers a “vague and viewpoint-discriminatory” standard on what constitutes misinformation, adding that it “provides no guidance as to how it should be applied to advertisements including medical information on which there is no medical consensus.” (Excerpt from The Christian Post.)