BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey launched a $1 million taxpayer-funded initiative in June designed to discourage people from seeking help from “crisis pregnancy centers” that are typically religiously affiliated and counsel clients against having abortions. The campaign includes ads on social media, billboards, radio and buses warning people to avoid the centers — which the administration dubbed “anti-abortion” — saying they're not to be trusted for comprehensive reproductive health care.
Center operators are pushing back, teaming with a national conservative law firm to challenge the campaign, saying it infringes on their constitutional rights. The Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice filed a lawsuit earlier this month in federal court on behalf of Your Options Medical, which operates four anti-abortion pregnancy clinics in the eastern part of the state. The lawsuit names Healey; state Department of Public Health Commissioner Robert Goldstein; and Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation, a nonprofit focused on educating the public about equitable access to reproductive health care.
The suit alleges the state initiative amounts to an unconstitutional violation of free speech and of equal protection rights for those who run the pregnancy crisis centers. The plaintiffs also argue that the state is subjecting them to religious discrimination. “This campaign involves selective law enforcement p.