Pro-Choice North Carolina’s most-recent Quarterly Update on January 20, 2026, featured our Executive Director Tara Romano and special guest Rep. Julie von Haefen (NC-36). They discussed the recent U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case oral arguments for First Choice Women’s Resource Center, Inc. v. Platkin and actions that Rep. von Haefen and Pro-Choice North Carolina have taken to combat anti-abortion centers (also known as crisis pregnancy centers) in our state. 

What’s new for abortion access in North Carolina?  

While the NC General Assembly still has not passed a budget, one thing is for certain: at least around 12 million taxpayer dollars would still be given to anti-abortion centers in North Carolina over the next year if the previous version of the draft budget is approved. Unless we continue to raise awareness and advocate in our state legislature like Rep. von Haefan is doing, these anti-abortion centers will continue seeing this same outrageous level of funding, enabling their deception and misinformation to keep leading pregnant people away from potentially life-saving and comprehensive reproductive health care information. 

How do we make sense of the latest SCOTUS case involving anti-abortion centers?

Anti-abortion centers use misleading language and tactics to portray their business as a legitimate clinic that provides reproductive health care. Abortion rights advocates have worked tirelessly for years to expose the way that anti-abortion centers lie to consumers about their deceptive business practices and the reproductive health care services they erroneously say they provide in their “clinics.” 

All consumers (not just people trying to access reproductive health care) should be protected from deceptive business practices, and that is just what New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin was trying to do when he subpoenaed First Choice Women’s Resource Center for its list of donors. This New Jersey anti-abortion center uses very different language when it tells its donors what it does versus the language it uses to persuade potential clients to utilize its services.  

Are those donors really aware of the ways that First Choice Women’s Resource Center lies about providing legitimate reproductive health care to its prospective clients, given how different the business’ website portrays itself to its donors vs. people seeking care? Sure, they tell their donors that they want to end abortion access, but do those donors know that the organization is deliberately misleading patients, potentially coercing their actions, and exposing them to harm? 

Either way, First Choice Women’s Resource Center sued the state of New Jersey, saying that the subpoena for their donor data goes against their right to freedom of speech.  

What ruling could we expect to see from SCOTUS?

Although SCOTUS has only heard oral arguments for this case, it is expected they will once again side with anti-abortion centers as they did in 2018 SCOTUS case, NIFLA vs. Becerra, in which the Court ruled that fake clinics have a free pass to continue deceiving pregnant people, even though they prey on vulnerable people and their families, and often give people who come through their doors false and medically dangerous information. 

For a little background info on the current U.S. Supreme Court Case, check out this article from Mother Jones to learn more about First Choice Women’s Resource Center, Inc v. Platkin.   

What has Rep. von Haefen done to hold anti-abortion centers accountable? 

Now serving in her 4^th term in the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA), Representative Julie von Haefen has been a longtime advocate opposing taxpayer funding of anti-abortion centers and has introduced bills in the NCGA to hold these deceptive organizations accountable for the dangerous anti-abortion rhetoric they use to dissuade pregnant people and their families from getting real reproductive health care. Some of the bills Rep. von Haefen has introduced include:   

1. Budget amendments that move taxpayer dollars from anti-abortion centers to real clinics that actually provide legitimate reproductive health care, including abortion services.

2. A bill requiring anti-abortion centers conduct financial reporting of the taxpayer dollars allocated to them in the state budget 

3. Regulations that prevent deceptive business practices 

4. Regulations for the provision of pregnancy ultrasound services such that they must be provided by a licensed ultrasound technician.  

The above policies are just a few examples of the kinds of legislative action that can be taken to hold anti-abortion centers accountable. Because of their leadership in abortion rights advocacy, both Tara Romano and Rep. von Haefen contributed to the Public Leadership Institute's recent policy playbook, which discusses the wide variety of public policies that can be used to fight anti-abortion centers in the legislature, and they were the only two individuals in North Carolina invited to contribute.  

Although the conservative majority in the NCGA prevents the people of North Carolina from holding anti-abortion centers accountable and from stopping anti-abortion centers altogether, the kinds of actions taken by Rep. von Haefen are necessary to keep building momentum against these fake clinics that put pregnant people’s lives at risk with impunity.  

While the North Carolina General Assembly may not currently have the votes it would need to enshrine abortion access as a right for all pregnant people in our state constitution, and though it does not currently have the votes to make sweeping and necessary changes to how anti-abortion centers operate, we will forge ahead, unwavering in our support for the work that Rep. von Haefen and other abortion rights activists are doing to keep making progress towards abortion access for all and to show why real and quality reproductive health care is a human right.  

How is Pro-Choice North Carolina working to stop anti-abortion centers? 

One of Pro-Choice NC’s latest efforts to fight anti-abortion centers in North Carolina has included working with local grassroots organizers to put on public screenings of the groundbreaking documentary, Preconceived.  

This film takes a straightforward and unflinching look inside anti-abortion centers to talk with the people who run them and the people they take advantage of, showing exactly what kinds of business practices and anti-abortion messaging these centers use to draw people in as clients who are being told they are receiving legitimate reproductive health care.  

If you haven’t seen Preconceived yet, follow the link to the film’s website to find out how you can watch it yourself, or keep an eye out for future film screenings dates in your area that will be announced to subscribers of our monthly newsletter, Carolina Repro Events and Musings, aka C.R.E.A.M. 

Don’t miss our next webinar!  Sign up here and stay tuned to our free monthly newsletter, where we share dates and registration links for our quarterly updates, free educational webinars, and future events.  

Many thanks to our friend Rep. Julie von Haefen (NC-36) for her advocacy and for joining us in our latest Quarterly Update!