The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has actually alerted 3 so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that they are violating a brand-new point out law intended to guarantee that women understand their every one of choices once making a decision concerning an unplanned pregnancy.
“I take this law rather seriously. I take violations of it seriously,” City Atty. Mike Feuer told KPCC.
“Crisis pregnancy centers have actually been known to spread false medical information,” he said. “I believe very strongly that women are entitled to be fully informed concerning their reproductive choices.”
The Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency Act calls for licensed facilities that give pregnancy-related solutions to notify clients that the point out supplies access to low-expenditure and free abortions. It calls for unlicensed facilities to disclose that they’re not licensed by the point out to give medical care.
An attorney for a national group representing pregnancy centers says the point out law threatens the facilities’ freedom of speech. The centers have challenged the law in point out and federal court.
Matt Bowman says the notices needed under the Truth Act violate the pregnancy centers’ core beliefs. He represents the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, an organization that advocates on behalf of pregnancy centers.
“The government has actually no legal ideal to pressure others to communicate messages or promote pointers they disagree with, especially on life-and-death troubles enjoy abortion,” Bowman says. “A government that does that threatens everyone’s freedom of speech.”
According to the California ProLife Council, there are 189 crisis pregnancy centers in the state, offering women along with solutions enjoy pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling. Critics claim their main target is to persuade women versus abortions.
Earlier this month, the city attorney’s office sent letters to Pregnancy Counseling focus in Mission Hills, Los Angeles Pregnancy focus in MacArthur Park and Harbor Pregnancy Insight focus in Wilmington. The letters said the centers were not offering the needed notification. Feuer said the centers should appropriate the violations within 30 days or face a civil penalty of $500 for the very first offense and $1,000 for per subsequent offense.
A spokeswoman for the point out Attorney General’s office believes these are the very first centers to be notified under the law.
Feuer’s letter to Pregnancy Counseling focus informs it that, as a licensed medical facility whose primary purpose is to give family preparing or pregnancy-related services, it should notify clients that, “California has actually public solutions that give immediate free or low-expenditure access to comprehensive family preparing solutions (including every one of FDA-approved ways of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women.”
This observe is supposed to be posted in an evident put in the waiting area or distributed as a printed document, according to the law.
The letter to Harbor Pregnancy Insight focus and LA Pregnancy solutions claim that, as unlicensed facilities that give pregnancy-related services, they should make clients aware that, “this facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the point out of California and has actually no licensed medical provider that supplies or straight supervises the provision of services.”
That observe is supposed to be posted in the facility’s entrance and in at the very least one various other put where clients obtain services, the law says.
Feuer says he won’t disclose his enforcement technique if centers go on to violate the law yet said, “I will certainly pursue every one of the remedies that I have actually offered to me.”
In April, a KPCC investigation discovered 6 of eight pregnancy centers were not complying along with the law.
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