[JURIST] California pregnancy clinics on Saturday filed suit [complaint] challenging a new state law that would require them to inform women and girls that come to their clinics of abortion services provided by the state. This is the first law that would require anti-abortion clinics to inform incoming individuals of abortion services. Crisis pregnancy centers are often times run by religious groups and most times discourage women from getting abortions. The lawsuit claims the Reproductive Facts Act [text] interferes with the freedom of religion and the bill unconstitutionally requires the clinics to “to speak messages that they have not chosen, with which they do not agree, and that distract and detract from the messages they have chosen to speak.” The lawsuit was filed on behalf of A Woman’s Friend Pregnancy Resource Clinic in Marysville and Crisis Pregnancy Center of Northern California in Redding. The centers currently offer free pregnancy tests and consultation but do not offer abortions or information on abortions. California Attorney General Kamala Harris [official website] has stated she would defend and “rigorously” enforce the law.

Abortion related issues have been a heated topic of discussion for the past several years in the US. Earlier this month the US House of Representatives [official website] approved [JURIST report] the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, a bill that would cut all federal funding to women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood. In August Planned Parenthood filed a complaint [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, alleging that Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s termination of Medicaid provider agreements for the facility violates a federal law that requires Medicaid beneficiaries to have a choice in provider for family planning. Also in August the Alaska Superior Court struck down [JURIST report] a state law it says would have unfairly burdened low-income individuals by limiting Medicaid funding for abortions. Earlier that month the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee lifted [JURIST report] a temporary restraining order that limited the state in enforcing new abortion laws regarding licensing standards for clinics. In July Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law [JURIST report] the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, limiting the ability of a woman to seek an abortion more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy. In June the US Supreme Court granted a motion to stay [JURIST report], allowing more than half of Texas’ 18 abortion clinics to stay open by temporarily blocking a law that would place stringent requirements on clinics requiring the majority of them to close.