(The Center Square) – Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is pleased by the stand a New Jersey pregnancy center has taken in the U.S. Supreme Court against what it calls a “weaponized government.” Susan B. Anthony said that New Jersey’s attorney general pursued “a political fishing expedition” against the center due to ideological differences that then prompted a lawsuit.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) President Marjorie Dannenfelser told The Center Square that “pro-life advocates should be encouraged by [First Choice [the pregnancy center’s] stand against weaponized government at the Supreme Court this week.”
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, which is a First Amendment case centering “around pro-abortion New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s campaign of hostility against pregnancy centers over the fact that they do not perform abortions.”
Dannenfelser told The Center Square that “conservative and liberal justices alike had tough questions about Attorney General Platkin’s harassment campaign against First Choice, a nonprofit that has served women and families in the Garden State at no charge for decades.”
“These questions definitively exposed the truth: Platkin received no complaints about First Choice, either from donors or clients, but chose to pursue a political fishing expedition anyway while working hand-in-glove with abortion giant Planned Parenthood,” Dannenfelser said.
“A just decision in this case ought to be unanimous for First Choice,” Dannenfelser said.
Dannefelser told The Center Square that “the case obviously has enormous significance for thousands of pregnancy centers nationwide – who have repeatedly had to defend themselves against Democrats in court and pro-abortion violence in our neighborhoods.”
Dannefelser said the case is also significant “for every American who would freely exercise First Amendment rights without discrimination.”
According to SBA’s news release, Platkin and his office “have attempted to force pregnancy centers to hand over private donor information, as well as [coordinated] with Planned Parenthood – America’s largest abortion business – to issue a so-called ‘consumer alert’ targeting pregnancy centers with false and unsubstantiated accusations.”
When reached, Platkin said in a statement to The Center Square that “First Choice – a crisis pregnancy center operating in New Jersey – has for years refused to answer questions about its operations in our state and the potential misrepresentations it has been making.”
“We issued a subpoena in 2023 to ensure that First Choice was complying with all relevant state laws,” Platkin said.
Platkin additionally said that “First Choice is looking for an exception to the usual procedural rules as it tries to avoid complying with a lawful subpoena” and that First Choice’s position “has no grounding in more than a century of history.”
When First Choice Pregnancy Centers was reached, they referred The Center Square to legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
ADF Senior Counsel and vice president of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice Erin Hawley told The Center Square in a statement that “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.”
“The Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from demands by a hostile state official to disclose donor identities and contact information, and First Choice is entitled to vindicate those rights in federal court,” Hawley said.
“We’re looking forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and urging it to hold that First Choice has the same right to federal court as any other civil rights plaintiff,” Hawley said.
First Choice Executive Director Aimee Huber said in a statement to The Center Square: “For more than two years, Attorney General Platkin has been targeting First Choice with aggressive demands for sensitive documents, including our donors’ identities.”
“He has gone to great lengths to frustrate the important work we do – work that has made a tangible, life-saving difference for tens of thousands of New Jersey women and their children,” Huber said.
“The government can’t harass those who support pro-life ministries just because it disagrees with their message and their mission,” Huber said.
