How to use a Safe Haven Baby Box
Melissa Sullivan, executive director of the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Simpson County, demonstrates how to use the Safe Haven Baby Box at Simpson General Hospital in Mendenhall, Mississippi, Tuesday, February 20, 2024.
An anti-abortion center is suing the state and a nonprofit organization over the Commonwealth’s education campaign “raising awareness of the dangers and potential harm posed by anti-abortion centers.”
Your Options Medical, a chain of crisis pregnancy centers with locations in Brookline, Revere, Fall River and Hyannis, alleges that the campaign, which Governor Maura Healey’s administration touted earlier this year as a first-in-the-nation awareness campaign, violates the center’s constitutional rights regarding religious and political expression.
“Governor Healey and the DPH must be held accountable for spending over a million dollars in state funds to defame, threaten and intimidate pro-life pregnancy centers,” Your Options Medical’s legal representatives said in a statement to Boston.com.
Your Options Medical is represented by the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center, which was founded by the conservative Christian group Massachusetts Family Institute.
What are crisis pregnancy centers
Crisis pregnancy centers, sometimes called pregnancy counseling centers or pregnancy support centers, are typically nonprofit organizations that provide health services for pregnant women, such as testing, ultrasounds, and counseling. They are usually religiously oriented.
The Attorney General’s Office says that while crisis pregnancy centers often pose as health facilities, they are actually anti-abortion organizations that attempt to prolong a pregnant woman’s pregnancy until it is too late for an abortion, using emotionally manipulative tactics such as “providing small plastic fetuses or baby clothes.”
The Attorney General’s website warns that many of these clinics are not licensed medical facilities, that they typically do not employ licensed physicians or nurses, and that they often provide “inaccurate and misleading information about abortion and the medical and psychological effects of abortion.”
The details of the lawsuit
In early June, the Healey government launched a $1 million information campaign aimed at educating the public about crisis pregnancy centers and teaching them how to recognize an anti-abortion center.
As part of the campaign, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is providing a link to a list of anti-abortion centers provided by the nonprofit Reproductive Equity Now, which includes Your Options Medical.
Your Options Medical has filed suit in federal court against Healey, state Department of Health Commissioner Robert Goldstein, and the nonprofit Reproductive Equity Now and its executive director, accusing them of defamation and harassment.
“This campaign includes selective prosecution, public threats, and even a government-sponsored advertising campaign with a single goal – to deprive YOM and similar groups of their First Amendment right to freely express their religious and political views regarding the sanctity of human life in the context of the highly controversial issue of abortion,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also alleges that a YOM doctor resigned during the campaign and that the organization was “forced to operate in a culture of fear and government harassment.”
The state Department of Health declined to comment due to pending litigation.
Healey’s office and Reproductive Equity Now did not respond to requests for comment.
Rin Velasco is a trends reporter. You can reach her at [email protected].
