A faith-based pregnancy center in Hartford, Conn., is fighting back against nearly the same kind of discrimination other similar pregnancy centers dealt with and fought all the way to the Supreme Court last year.
Last week, attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights to report discrimination against a life-affirming, faith-based pregnancy care center.
The issue at hand began in October 2018, when the city of Hartford enacted an ordinance that forces Caring Families Pregnancy Services, a faith-based pregnancy resource center offering aid to pregnant women, to make specific statements on signs inside and outside the facility, on its website, and in telephone conversations with clients, regarding their so-called quality of care. The city of Hartford compelled them to share messages announcing, “This facility does not have a licensed medical provider on site to provide or supervise all services.” However, Caring Families offers a wide range of services that do not require supervision by a licensed medical provider.
In April, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Caring Families. They argued that the city’s compelled statements are a violation of the First Amendment and incorrectly imply that the nonprofit center is unqualified to provide the range of free services it offers to clients. Since the city of Hartford is a recipient of federal funding, ADF believes it is violating federal law by subjecting the pro-life ministry to unlawful discrimination.
In its lawsuit, ADF says the city of Hartford has “crafted a speaker-based, viewpoint-based law, targeting the speech only of speakers espousing certain pro-life moral, religious, and philosophical beliefs.” Ironically, the city has exempted abortion clinics and community health centers from the same compelled speech ordinance, even in situations when they do not have “a licensed medical provider present at all times directly providing or directly supervising all medical services.”
In a statement, ADF senior counsel Kevin Theriot said: “The city has no business steering women away from life-affirming help. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled just last year that pro-life pregnancy centers should be free to serve women without unjust government punishment. Hartford’s law only makes it harder for women to seek out all of their options and obtain support. That’s why we’re filing a lawsuit to protect pregnancy centers from hostile regulation that singles them out.”
This case is eerily reminiscent of one the Supreme Court heard in 2018, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. In fact, the Hartford ordinance was put into place just a few months after the Supreme Court ruled that the state of California violated the First Amendment by targeting anti-abortion pregnancy centers and forcing them to advertise for specific things against their will or else face punitive measures.
That the government would attempt to compel any entity to say or advertise for specific things — things that specific organization vehemently disagrees with or that directly contradict their mission — is bad enough. But the fact that the state of California, and now the city of Hartford, specifically targeted anti-abortion organizations and directed them to advertise things that hurt their goals is unconstitutional and despicable.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
