California Governor Jerry Brown signed the Reproductive Fact ACT into law Friday, which requires anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to post signs disclosing to their patients if they are medically licensed, and informing them the state provides low-cost family planning, abortion services and prenatal care. On Saturday, two anti-abortion clinics sued the attorney general, arguing their free speech rights are being violated.
The Reproductive Fact Act, first introduced to the Assembly in May, requires medically licensed facilities who primarily provide family planning or “pregnancy-related services’” to post signs with this wording:
“California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women. To determine whether you qualify, contact the county social services office at [insert the telephone number].”
The idea is to inform anyone who’s wound up in an anti-abortion clinic that provides basical medical services like ultrasounds that they have other options. Medically unlicensed facilities have to post this one:
“This facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the State of California and has no licensed medical provider who provides or directly supervises the provision of services.”
Given how many unlicensed anti-abortion facilities provide over-the-counter pregnancy tests, sonograms out of vans in the parking lot, and other services designed to look like medical care, that seems like a solid plan.