Supreme Court to Rule Whether Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Can Avoid Subpoena

New Jersey’s investigation into whether a faith-based pregnancy center misled the public into thinking it provided referrals for abortion will remain on hold, as the Supreme Court of the United States agreed today to hear the center’s challenge to state efforts to subpoena records.

A First Choice center | Image credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

The justices will hear an appeal from First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, which seeks to block a 2023 subpoena from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, a Democrat. First Choice, which operates at 5 New Jersey locations, has not yet complied with Platkin’s request for information about the crisis pregnancy center’s donors, medical providers, and marketing.

NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin | Image credit: NJ OAG

“First Choice—a crisis pregnancy center operating in New Jersey—has for years refused to answer questions about their operations in New Jersey and the potential misrepresentations they have been making, including about reproductive healthcare,” Platkin said in a statement. “We issued a lawful subpoena in November 2023 to ensure that First Choice was complying with all relevant state laws. Nonprofits, including crisis pregnancy centers, may not deceive or defraud residents in our State, and we may exercise our traditional investigative authority to ensure that they are not doing so—as we do to protect New Jerseyans from a range of harms.”

New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act is one of the most powerful state statutes of its kind, with significant penalties for entities that mislead the public. Specifically, it bars “knowing concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact with intent that others rely upon such concealment, suppression or omission.”

The First Choice website does not state whether the center provides abortion referrals, but it does feature a box that reads, “I am considering an abortion.” A button invites users to “Learn more about the abortion pill, abortion procedures, and your options in New Jersey.”

Platkin said that the question before the Supreme Court is procedural—it focuses on whether First Choice sued prematurely, “not whether our subpoena was valid.” He expressed confidence that the state would prevail when the Supreme Court takes up the case this fall. He said the pregnancy center seeks a “special exception” from complying with a “lawful state subpoena, something the US Constitution does not permit it to do.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case comes nearly 3 years after it reversed Roe v Wade, which in 1973 gave women a constitutional right to abortion. Many Republican-controlled states immediately began enforcing new bans or restrictions, while many Democratic-leaning states moved to protect abortion rights at the state level.

Attorneys for First Choice described the organization as a “faith-based, pro-life pregnancy center.” Across the country, many such centers—which may include the word “choice” in their names—have sprung up since the 2022 decision to steer pregnant women away from seeking an abortion.

First Choice has challenged the New Jersey subpoena in federal court, where a district judge found the filing was premature; an appeals court agreed. The pregnancy center argues that the request for its donor list violates its rights under the First Amendment.

Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the pregnancy center.

“New Jersey’s attorney general is targeting First Choice — a ministry that provides parenting classes, free ultrasounds, baby clothes, and more to its community—simply because of its pro-life views,” attorney Erin Hawley said. “We are looking forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court.”