Assembly Bill 315 is an overly broad attack on pro-life pregnancy centers

As Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Lawmakers in California would do well to heed the words of the Nobel laureate and preeminent scientist of the 20th century. While community-based, pro-life pregnancy centers are forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to protect themselves from violent, anti-woman attacks, they now face an additional and repetitive attack – not from masked and hooded vandals, but from their own elected representatives.

This prompts the question: Are California lawmakers insane for repeatedly proposing regulations against, and failing to protect, pro-life pregnancy centers?  If we look at Einstein’s definition, the clear answer is yes.

Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s proposed Assembly Bill 315 would enable limitless fines against community-based pregnancy centers for supposed violations. This vague and overly broad bill, like its predecessors, suffers from serious constitutional problems. Between 2007-2020, similar bills have been considered and rejected in nine states (Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Texas,Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia).

In 2015, California became the first state to get an anti-pregnancy center bill enacted.  The oppressive law, however, was dead on arrival in the courts.  In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law finding it an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.  If the embarrassment of being summarily rejected by the highest court in the land was not enough, a lower court then ordered California to pay $399,000 for the pregnancy centers’ attorneys’ fees.

The Court’s decision was expected.  In fact, in all but one instance where an anti-pregnancy center regulation has been enacted, courts havefound the regulation to be unconstitutional, and issued significant fines in favor of pregnancy centers.  These rulings are resulting in states and localities paying pro-life pregnancy centers millions of dollars in damages and attorneys’ fees, including Montgomery County, Maryland ($375,000), the city of Baltimore ($1.1 million), and Austin, Texas ($997,144.95 and $480,000).

Not to be outdone by their colleagues in Sacramento, 38 California Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted against a resolution merely condemning the horrific violence that has targeted over 100 pregnancy centers, churches, and other pro-life facilities nationwide.

Whether insane or not, California lawmakers have no justification for repeatedly attempting to regulate pregnancy centers.  According to the most recent data, California pregnancy centers helped over 93,000 people in need with services and materials valued at over $14.2 million in 2019.

California lawmakers are also bucking the trend of public support for pregnancy centers nationwide.  A recent poll found that 91% of Americans support pro-life pregnancy centers.  The clients of pregnancy centers themselves have an even more favorable opinion. Long-term data collected from client exit interviews by one national network association, Care Net, demonstrates an average of 97% positive client satisfaction per center by women (and men) clients for the past 13 years.

Moreover, the positive impact of pro-life pregnancy centers is so great that lawmakers in 13 states have opted to provide direct funding. Three more states, West Virginia, Iowa, and Tennessee, are expected to join this year.

California’s pro-abortion lawmakers might also consider that in recent years, at least 19 states have enacted resolutions honoring the work of pregnancy centers, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma,South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Pregnancy centers make their communities better and serve those in need.  In the face of relentless opposition, in a recent year they served over 2 million individuals nationwide with services valued at nearly $270 million dollars.  Almost 70,000 (8 out of 10) people who work at a pregnancy center are community volunteers.  These are people who selflessly give countless hours of their time to serve others.

When one volunteer was asked why she volunteered at a pro-life pregnancy center, her response was “because I love women and children, born and unborn.” Due to the work of such heroic volunteers, pregnancy centers helped save over 800,000 unborn human lives between 2016-2020.

California lawmakers should stop doing the insane.

Jeanneane Maxon is an associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute.  She previously served as vice president of external affairs and corporate counsel for Americans United for Life and general counsel for the Care Net pregnancy center provider network.