- File: Terry J. Allen
- Julia Zimmerman with other picketers at Care Net Pregnancy Center of Central Vermont in Barre in July 2022
Alliance Defending Freedom, a well-funded conservative legal group, has sued the State of Vermont on behalf of two pro-life pregnancy centers, alleging that a recently passed law impedes the centers' ability to provide services to women and families in the state.
The plaintiffs, Branches Pregnancy Resource Center in Brattleboro and Aspire Now in Williston, are two of at least seven so-called crisis pregnancy centers in Vermont.
The centers, nonprofit organizations that often have ties to national, pro-life Christian organizations, offer a range of services, including over-the-counter pregnancy tests, peer counseling, free diapers and baby clothes, and sometimes ultrasounds. They do not provide referrals for abortion or emergency contraception.
At issue is Act 15, which was signed into law this year and is intended to ensure that Vermonters are "provided with accurate, factual information about the types of health care services that are available to pregnant individuals."
The law says that some "limited-services" pregnancy centers in Vermont "provide confusing and misleading information to pregnant individuals contemplating abortion by leading those individuals to believe that their facilities offer abortion services and unbiased counseling." Other centers, the law says, "have promoted patently false or biased medical claims about abortion, pregnancy, contraception, and reproductive health care providers."
Pregnancy centers using advertising that is "untrue or clearly designed to mislead the public about the nature of the services provided" are violating Vermont statutes on "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce," the law says.
Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said in a statement that she looked forward to defending the state against the lawsuit.
Act 15 "prohibits lying and deception in the marketplace," Clark wrote. "Who would be against that?"
The law also requires licensed health care providers who work at pregnancy centers to take responsibility for "conducting and providing health care services, information, and counseling" and to ensure those services are conducted in accordance with state law and professional standards.
Last year, an
investigation by Seven Days found that a brochure offered at a crisis pregnancy center in Barre contained inaccurate data regarding the risk of breast cancer after an abortion. The story also revealed
that several Vermont pregnancy center directors gave speeches at churches that contained misleading information about the physical and mental health effects women experience when they have an abortion.
The lawsuit alleges that Act 15 violates both the free speech clause of the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and asks
the court to bar the state from enforcing the portion of the law that pertains to pregnancy centers.
In an interview on Wednesday, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Julia Payne said that under Vermont's law, pregnancy centers that don't employ medical staff could face steep fines for providing "mundane" services such as distributing drugstore pregnancy tests or providing peer counseling.
Payne said the law is also problematic because it singles out pregnancy centers that do not provide or refer for abortions, rather than being a more general law that pertains to
all reproductive health clinics in the state.
Alliance Defending Freedom brought a similar suit on behalf of pro-life pregnancy centers in California —
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra — which made its way to the Supreme Court in 2018. In that case, the court ruled that a California law requiring pregnancy centers to notify patients about all their treatment options, including abortion, violated the centers' freedom of speech.
Payne drew parallels between the California law and Vermont's newly passed one, noting that both target only pregnancy centers that do not provide or refer for abortions.
Jean Marie Davis, executive director of Branches Pregnancy Resource Center in Brattleboro, said on Wednesday that her organization provides a number of free services to the community — including pregnancy tests, counseling, maternity and infant supplies, and help to victims of sex trafficking — on a small budget.
Davis said she's worried that her organization, which does not employ a medical director, might face a hefty fine if the state determines Branches is providing services the AG's Office classifies as medical or that it is misleading clients.
"The government has no business steering women away from life-affirming help," Davis said.