While yesterday’s unanimous decision in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin should not be read as anything more than what it is—a procedural vote on a technical question of whether the plaintiff (First Choice Women’s Resource Center) can continue their case in court—the case itself is emblematic of the anti-abortion center industry’s decades-long efforts to evade accountability for their harmful tactics and impacts. Anti-abortion centers, whose main goal is to block people from accessing abortion, have worked hand-in-hand with repressive state governments to shield themselves from accountability, claiming they cannot be held liable for misinformation, for presenting themselves as medical centers when they are not, or for deliberately misleading clients who come to them looking for medical services. Hiding behind deliberate misinterpretations of First Amendment protections, these centers refuse to be held accountable even when their actions force their clients to seek emergency care.
Pregnant patients and other clients seeking health care services (including people in rural communities, young people, immigrant communities, and people without health insurance) have a right to quality, nonjudgemental, medically accurate, and timely care. States have a responsibility to their residents to ensure entities that say they offer certain services make good on those promises. Whether or not the plaintiffs in this case are doing so remains to be seen, regardless of this ruling.
At Pro-Choice North Carolina, we will continue working to expose the harms of anti-abortion centers, challenge the millions in unaccountable tax dollars they receive, and advocate for robust access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care, to improve reproductive health care access for all. North Carolinians deserve nothing less!
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