ACLJ Fighting for Pregnancy Resource Centers Facing a Litany of Violent Physical and Legal Attacks Across the Country

The fight for life is the foundation of the ACLJ’s mission to fight for justice. We have been engaged in this battle since our founding over 30 years ago. While the ACLJ has always defended the sanctity of human life – especially the lives of preborn children, the most vulnerable and innocent of all – we are engaged now more than ever. Pro-life Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) have long been a target for radical abortionists who oppose their lifesaving work, and the ACLJ has defended these centers across the United States – including in New York, California, and Hawaii.

PRCs are local, non-profit organizations that provide invaluable aid to people facing difficult decisions concerning a pregnancy. They offer, free of charge, a variety of educational, medical, and material resources and assistance to millions of women and their babies annually. These centers are on the frontline of the fight for life, and the abortion industry cannot stand the work that they do; indeed, radical abortionists have gone to great lengths to discredit, burden, and shut them down. Over the years, the ACLJ has continually defended PRCs, including from government overreach. Now, PRCs are facing new forms of attack in addition to the legal and political challenges that they have always faced.

After the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, PRCs came under increasing attack ranging from vandalism and physical destruction of property by groups such as Jane’s Revenge, calls to shut down pro-life centers by pro-abortion politicians, presidential Executive orders that can be used to target PRCs, state and local laws targeting PRCs for review, to Google and Yelp limiting their online reach.

One example of the laws and ordinances that are being pushed to target PRCs are a set of ordinances that the city of Allentown, PA, ultimately failed to pass, but that would have – among other things – limited the ability of PRCs to advertise their services because they do not provide abortions.

In addition to legislative attacks, over 78 pregnancy centers and offices across the country have been attacked and vandalized since the end of April 2022. These centers have been spray-painted with graffiti and threats, plastered with pro-abortion posters, vandalized with broken windows, or even firebombed.

The ACLJ has been in contact with many centers across the country that are all facing a myriad of attacks from the pro-abortion side. We’ve talked with PRCs in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, to name a few.

In New York, we are representing four PRCs because of a 2022 New York law (A5499) that authorizes the New York Commissioner of Health “to conduct a study and issue a report examining the unmet health and resource needs facing pregnant women in New York and the impact of limited service pregnancy centers on the ability of women to obtain accurate, non-coercive health care information and timely access to a comprehensive range of reproductive and sexual health care services.” Unfortunately, we know that sharing a pro-life message is considered “coercive” and “inaccurate,” and that “comprehensive” reproductive care really just means a lot of different abortion options, NOT alternatives. We’ll be there to defend lifesaving centers against the impending attack this law will bring.

In Pennsylvania, we are representing three PRCs because of proposed city ordinances that govern “deceptive advertising/practices,” by “limited services pregnancy center[s],” i.e., pro-life pregnancy resource centers that advertise lifesaving alternatives to abortion. This is concerning because the ordinances include terms like “disparaging the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation of facts.” Pregnancy Resource Centers often provide information on the mental and physical side effects of abortion, and the possibility of abortion-pill reversal. This information has been labeled “false” and “misleading” by pro-abortionists and is the kind of information that pro-abortion cities want to prevent.

In Iowa, we are representing a PRC that has been targeted for months by pro-abortion protestors. These activists aren’t interested in advancing a so-called “right” to abortion, but through harassing and obnoxious tactics, are trying to intimidate PRCs from doing what we know Planned Parenthood doesn’t do: offer lifesaving options and resources to women in need of help.

In Vermont, we are representing a PRC because of Vermont’s recently adopted constitutional amendment – the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, which essentially codifies Roe, and states “That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.” The language of the amendment is very broad, and Vermont has been trying to shut down the few PRCs that exist in the state through other means. Our client is concerned that the language in the amendment, in proposed legislation, will be used to target their pregnancy center for closure in the near future.

We are in contact with three other Pregnancy Resource Centers that have both similar and some other issues for which they are considering legal representation.

Evil hates good . . . and death will always try to stamp out life. But we know the Author of life and He is on our side, which is why life will always win. The ACLJ is here to support and fight for the groups and organizations that provide the practical and day-to-day support that women need to choose life. And we will never stop our work. If you are a Pregnancy Resource Center under attack, contact us at ACLJ.org/HELP. We are ready and able to help.