City launches attack on centers that advise against abortion

Officials in San Francisco have launched an attack on counseling centers that offer advice on prenatal care and adoption – but don't offer abortion – after apparently becoming enraged that a Google search for "San Francisco" and "abortion" included the centers in the results.

City attorney Dennis Herrera said at a news conference that when women were searching for terms "abortion" and "San Francisco," a Google listing for "First Resort," a counseling organization, appears, according to a report in the BayCitizen.

Google search results

That's even though the center does not offer abortions, the report said.

"Women's reproductive rights are under assault," Herrera told those attending the event.

So a plan he's hatched, along with Supervisor Malia Cohen, is to target "right-wing, politically motivated centers" with legislation that would prohibit centers from making "misleading" statements about the services they provide.

Herrera said he's beginning legal action against a center over that issue, the report said.

Cohen said her legislation, cosponsored with several other supervisors, could result in fines for centers "that use misleading advertisements."

Herrera said he sent a letter to First Resort, the report said. It asks First Resort to change its advertising.

At Pajamas Media, a commentary took the city's idea literally.

"Not aborting fetuses will soon be a crime in San Francisco," it said. "At least that's what the city government is pushing for in its bizarre new attack on pregnancy counseling centers."

The writer, coming from a "pro-choice" perspective, said the city appears to wish to banish "any counseling center which doesn't encourage or perform abortions."

"San Francisco's municipal government apparently had a conniption fit over the placement of First Resort's Google ad," the editorial said.

"Does the ad itself say that First Resort provides abortions? No. Does it even mention abortions? No. It just says "First Resort – Unplanned Pregnancy." Nothing more. But gosh darn it, the ad pops up if someone does a Google search!"

On the website's forum, "chambers," wrote, "The psychology of the legislators driving this effort is skin-crawlingly creepy. … How can so much passion, indeed fury, be worked up for ending the life of a fetus in the womb?"

"Zombie," on the same form, summed up the issue with two words, "Death panels."

A related attempt by pro-abortion factions in New York City to control the speech of pregnancy centers that counsel mothers-to-be also recently hit a judicial speed bump.

The setback was a preliminary injunction from a federal judge that prevents a new city requirement from being enforced while it is argued in court.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg in March signed into law Bill 371-A, which requires pregnancy service centers to tell potential female clients whether they provide abortions and have a licensed medical provider on staff, under the threat of thousands of dollars in fines, closure and even prison for management.

The law, however, does not require abortionists to make any disclosures about abortion alternatives.

The attack on the speech rights of the pro-life centers immediately attracted the intervention of some of the biggest pro-life public interest organizations in the nation, including the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defense Fund.