Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit last December on behalf of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers against New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew Platkin, for harassing the organization over its pro-life views.
First Choice focuses on saving the unborn, and providing free ultrasounds and testing for sexually-transmitted diseases, clothes for babies, and other services. The organization also administers Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) — it prescribes progesterone to counter the effects of mifepristone, which induces abortion.
The attorney general subpoenaed First Choice to turn over data in an investigation that involves possible violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
The pregnancy center would have to expend its limited resources and provide confidential patient data under the subpoena. To add insult to injury:
“ADF attorneys explain in First Choice’s federal lawsuit…that Platkin sought help from Planned Parenthood to draft his office’s consumer alert warning New Jerseyans about pregnancy centers,” according to ADF.
A lower court dismissed First Choice’s complaint on the grounds that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The pregnancy center asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for an emergency injunction, which the court denied.
The Third Circuit heard arguments last Thursday to consider the merits of the case. First Choice asked the court to protect its First Amendment rights and issue an expedited injunction.
“New Jersey’s attorney general is making a political example of First Choice simply because it provides pro-life and religious alternatives to his extreme abortion viewpoints,” said ADF senior counsel Lincoln Wilson, who argued the case in the appeals court. “We have complied with the court’s order—producing many documents—and are urging the court to allow First Choice to receive a ruling on its First Amendment rights from the federal court.”
Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom
