Supreme Court Should Protect Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers From Democrat Harassment

On Dec. 2, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of my nonprofit, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, against New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

This case matters not just to protect pregnancy centers like mine that provide free services to vulnerable women, but to ensure that no one is targeted and harassed by the government just because the government disagrees with their message.

For more than two years, Platkin has been pursuing a personal and political vendetta against pregnancy centers like First Choice, which he has targeted with an aggressive subpoena requesting sensitive documents, including our donors’ identities.

He has shown a willingness to bend the law to frustrate the important work we do—work that has made a tangible, life-and-death difference for tens of thousands of New Jersey women.

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Over the last 40 years, First Choice has been privileged to offer crucial resources to more than 36,000 women across our state. We haven’t forced those services on anyone. We haven’t charged any women for the services we provide.

In 2022 alone, pregnancy centers like First Choice provided 500,000 free ultrasounds, 200,000 STD tests, 3.5 million packs of diapers, and 43,000 car seats—more than $358 million worth of support to women who told us they wanted to parent but needed real and practical help to do so.

Yet Platkin calls this kind of caring “extremist.” Establishing a “Strike Force” against pregnancy centers, he pledged every tool at his disposal to shut down these efforts to help women who ask for our help.

Why is it so important to him to stop women from receiving material and emotional support?He certainly has no problem with the work of Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses, which profit from helping women end their babies’ lives.

Indeed, before Platkin issued a “consumer alert” against pregnancy centers, he invited Planned Parenthood to confidentially preview and edit his statements.

Platkin has not alleged that First Choice is engaged in any illegal or unethical activities, and he has not cited any complaint against us. But he has launched a full-on investigation demanding 10 years of detailed documentation on every facet of our ministry, including the identities of more than half of our donors.

Of course, providing that much information requires enormous time and manpower, sharply limiting our ability to help women. And the Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment protects the ability of donors to give anonymously to causes they believe in. The attorney general’s subpoena is a clear effort to punish and intimidate those who support our pro-life ministry.

Platkin’s actions put New Jersey in lockstep with other blue states around the country — Washington, New York, Illinois, and California— that share his determination to shut down pregnancy centers and deny their resources to women. And, in recent years, dozens of these centers have been firebombed, vandalized, and threatened for refusing to promote abortion.

The attorney general’s decision to serve this retaliatory subpoena on First Choice is a clear violation of federal law — specifically, First Amendment protections that permit us to freely express our beliefs, exercise our faith, and associate with like-minded individuals and organizations.

That’s why we filed a federal lawsuit through our attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, and why we asked the Supreme Court to review the lower court decisions that dismissed it and refused to consider our claims.We are overjoyed that the Supreme Court has now answered that call.

Platkin is certainly within his rights to disagree with our beliefs; he is far outside his rights in punishing us for holding them.We hope the Supreme Court will affirm our freedoms, tell the lower courts that our constitutional claims deserve to be heard, and perhaps make the limits of Platkin’s powers a little more clear to him.