A Wave of Support: Pro-Life Allies Across America Rally Behind ACLJ for Pregnancy Resource Centers

When the government decides to use its power to silence those who defend life, it doesn’t just threaten one ministry – it threatens every American’s right to speak, to believe, and to serve according to their conscience. That’s exactly what’s at stake in our case, A Woman’s Concern, Inc. d/b/a Your Options Medical Centers v. Healey, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

The ACLJ is proud to represent the appellant in this critical case – a licensed, life-affirming medical clinic that for more than two decades has offered women facing unplanned pregnancies a safe place to choose life. Instead of being celebrated, Your Options Medical was targeted by a state-sponsored campaign – branded a “fake clinic,” subjected to subpoenas, and smeared in a taxpayer-funded advertising blitz – all because it dares to operate from a pro-life, Christian conviction. After the district court wrongly dismissed the case, we took the fight to the First Circuit.

And we are not standing alone.

We are thrilled – and deeply grateful – to report that an extraordinary coalition of organizations has filed friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) briefs in support of our client and in support of reversal. These are groups that did not have to step forward. They chose to. And in doing so, they’ve sent an unmistakable message to Massachusetts and to every blue-state official watching: The pro-life movement will not be intimidated into silence.

Take action with the ACLJ. Sign our petition: Defeat Pro-Life Center Deception.

40 Days for Life is a Texas-based pro-life nonprofit known for organizing prayer vigils and sidewalk counseling outside abortion facilities. Its brief argues that the rights of free speech and freedom of religion require robust constitutional protection, and that Massachusetts’ campaign is coercive and chills the speech of pregnancy centers and pro-life advocates alike. Drawing on its on-the-ground perspective, the brief explains how state hostility toward pro-life speech reaches well beyond any single clinic. We thank them for adding that perspective to this case.

Heartbeat International is a nonprofit that supports a network of pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies in the United States and abroad. Its brief documents the pattern of violence, vandalism, and state-level legal pressure that pregnancy help organizations have faced in recent years, arguing that Massachusetts’ campaign fits a broader trend of government action aimed at these ministries rather than a genuine public-health measure. We’re grateful for the factual record it brings before the court.

Life Legal Defense Foundation is a California nonprofit that provides legal assistance to pro-life advocates and has represented Pregnancy Resource Centers responding to state subpoenas. Its brief focuses on the district court’s dismissal of our client’s Equal Protection claim, arguing that abortion businesses are a proper comparator, that Your Options Medical was treated differently than other licensed facilities, and that the state’s stated justifications do not withstand scrutiny at the pleading stage.

Perhaps most striking of all, Advancing American Freedom (AAF) – filing on behalf of its 161,715 members nationwide – assembled a broad, diverse coalition of nearly 30 organizations and leaders united behind one principle: Government cannot do indirectly what the Constitution forbids it from doing directly.

That coalition includes American Values; Americans For Fair Treatment; America’s Women; Anglicans for Life; the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE); Christian Medical & Dental Associations; the Coalition for Jewish Values; Democrats for Life; Family Institute of Connecticut Action; Frontiers of Freedom; the James Dobson Family Institute; JCCWatch.org; Men and Women for a Representative Democracy in America; Men for Life; National Right to Life; New Jersey Family Policy Center; the New York State Conservative Party; North Carolina Values Coalition; the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce; Students for Life of America; The Family Foundation of Virginia; Salt & Light Global; The Wagner Center; Tradition, Family, Property; Wisconsin Family Action; Women for Democracy in America; Daniel Darling of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement; and former Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones of the Leadership for America Institute.

Look closely at that list. Christians and Jews. Men and women. National advocacy groups and state coalitions. Even Democrats for Life is standing alongside conservative organizations. This is what principled unity looks like. Their brief draws on a deep well of precedent – from Brown v. Board of Education to NAACP v. Alabama – to show that a government cannot enlist private allies to accomplish censorship it could never achieve on its own, and that the freedom of association of pregnancy centers and their supporters is squarely at risk. We are humbled and energized by this outpouring of support.

Why This Matters

Friend-of-the-court briefs are more than legal filings. They are a declaration. Each of these organizations took the time, marshaled the resources, and put their name on the line to tell the First Circuit that what happened in Massachusetts is not just one clinic’s problem – it is a constitutional threat to all of us. When the state can brand a pro-life ministry “dangerous,” bury it in subpoenas, and fund a campaign to drive it out of existence, no American’s freedom of speech, religion, or association is safe.

To 40 Days for Life, Heartbeat International, Life Legal Defense Foundation, Advancing American Freedom, and every organization and leader in that remarkable coalition: Thank you. Thank you for getting involved. Thank you for refusing to look away. Thank you for standing shoulder to shoulder with us – and with the women and children whom pregnancy centers serve every single day.

At the ACLJ, we will keep fighting this case to the finish line. With allies like these beside us, we are more confident than ever that the First Amendment will prevail – and that life will be defended.

Join us as we defend pro-life centers. Sign the petition: Defeat Pro-Life Center Deception.