An argument analysis from SCOTUSblog giving an overview of the oral arguments that took place before the United States Supreme Court Dec. 2 reports that the justices seemed “sympathetic” to the pro-life pregnancy centers in the case.
New Jersey-based pregnancy organization First Choice Women’s Resource Centers has been working through a legal battle to protect its privacy after NJ Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued subpoenas demanding that the centers “reveal confidential documents and the identities of donors behind nearly 5,000 donations,” as CatholicVote previously reported.
According to SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe, Platkin said his office issued the subpoenas because “they were investigating whether First Choice may have misled women about whether it provides certain reproductive-health services, such as abortions.”
Howe reports that Erin Hawley, an attorney Alliance Defending Freedom representing First Choice, argued before the justices that Platkin had “violated the group’s First Amendment right to association as soon as it received the subpoena, even if the subpoena was not self-executing (meaning that the attorney general cannot himself enforce it or impose penalties for noncompliance, but instead must go to court to do so).” The nature of the subpoena – whether it was self-executing or not – was a major focus of the arguments, according to Howe.
Hawley also urged the court to consider whether “a reasonable donor would have been chilled” by the subpoena, and that in this instance, that would be the case, according to Howe. Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to concur, Howe remarked.
Roberts questioned Sundeep Iyer, chief counsel to the NJ attorney general, on whether he thought future potential donors might be affected by the prospect of having their name, phone number, and address all disclosed as a result of a subpoena such as the one issued to First Choice.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Elna Kagan also appeared sympathetic to this argument, according to Howe. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed “most receptive to New Jersey’s arguments,” but even she had concerns, Howe reported.
The Court is expected to make a decision in June or early July.
Writing for The Blaze Dec. 2, pro-life advocate Mary Fiorito emphasized the gravity of the ruling’s outcome, which she said could send a message warning people who target pro-life work across the nation.
She outlined how after the court issued the Dobbs decision, pro-abortion advocates attacked nearly 100 pro-life pregnancy resource centers across the country. In 2024, Aid for Women, a pregnancy center in Chicago that Fiorito serves at, was vandalized with cement that prevented it from opening.
“What those attacking our center failed to realize is that many of our clients live below or just skimming the poverty line,” Fiorito wrote. “Some have housing insecurity. And their inability to access our center for the care that they needed likely affected them dramatically.”
As the Supreme Court considers First Choice’s case, Fiorito wrote, “attacks on centers like ours serve as a powerful reminder that those offering alternatives to abortion have become punching bags of abortion extremists that will do anything to stop lifesaving work and promote abortion.”
The confidentiality of First Choice’s private donor records and other private information is a safety measure, she explained, to “protect those involved from the very real threat of pro-abortion retribution.”
Concluding, Fiorito urged: “It’s critical that the Supreme Court end this unfair lawfare against First Choice and draw a line to stop pro-abortion attacks on pregnancy resource centers once and for all.”
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