Casey Meets the Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Abstract

Recent cases about the constitutionality of compelled speech in the reproductive health care context contain an irony that is difficult to ignore. Whereas courts tend to be highly permissive when considering governmentally-mandated speech by physicians to patients seeking abortions, they have often been more skeptical of disclosure requirements imposed on crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which are nonmedical centers whose entire mission is to dissuade women from choosing abortion, and which have at least in some cases utilized deceptive techniques to accomplish that goal. In other words, it appears that non-physicians seeking to keep women from seeking a legal form of medical treatment have greater First Amendment protections than physicians who care directly for those women and who are generally entrusted by the state to exercise professional judgment.