Every year, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers makes a life-changing difference for thousands of New Jersey women. The U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision on Wednesday, April 29, in our case against the state is good news for all of them – and for many other people across America.
The decision affirms our right to pursue justice in federal court against state officials who violated our First Amendment rights by prosecuting us for helping women who seek our free support as they navigate unplanned pregnancies. The state targeted us for our pro-life positions, issued an invasive subpoena, and opened a baseless investigation based on…nothing. The state has not been able to identify a single complaint against our organization.
Not because I don’t want to try. Former Attorney General Matthew Platkin used every tool at his disposal to silence us. He put together a “Reproductive Rights Task Force” that worked with Planned Parenthood to issue a consumer alert warning New Jersey women about pregnancy centers because—heaven forbid—they don’t perform abortions.
This harassment culminated in Platkin making an invasive demand for large amounts of private information, including constitutionally protected information such as the names, telephone numbers, addresses, and places of employment of First Choice’s donors. Because these are clear violations of our constitutional rights, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, we have filed suit in federal court to block his efforts. When lower federal courts rejected our claims, we petitioned the Supreme Court to hear our case.
SUPREME COURT STROKES BLUE STATE AGAINST PRO-LIFE GROUP
Then-New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, with then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (L) and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, speak during a press conference in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP)
Now, the court has secured our right to be heard in federal court to fight for our organization’s right to interact freely with donors without fear of government retaliation for exercising our First Amendment freedoms.
That not only benefits us, but dozens of other pregnancy care centers across the country—Washington, Vermont, Illinois, California—that have been unjustly targeted by hostile government officials. In fact, it benefits all organizations because it allows them to file federal lawsuits against hostile government officials for violating their First Amendment rights.
Groups as diverse as tech giants, oil and gas companies, weapons manufacturers, media groups and immigrant advocacy organizations should be happy to hear that. All have faced invasive demands from government officials.
The Supreme Court did the right thing. I know because I was part of a horrific gender transition
New Jersey’s actions have threatened more than just the privacy and personal freedom of our donors; they have also severely hampered our ability to do what we do. Providing the kind and amount of information the state is looking for takes a lot of time, which is of course the intention – on the one hand it hinders us, while at the same time it tries to intimidate anyone who is willing to help or support what we are doing.
That’s a lot of government power deployed to punish a small nonprofit for nothing more than practicing our religious beliefs and serving our community, and the justices were right when they said state officials should be held accountable in federal court.
The Supreme Court ruling agrees that demands for information about private donors burden First Amendment rights. This gives us a big step forward to be able to do what we do best again: serving women. Over the past four decades, we have provided critical resources to more than 36,000 women in our state. We did not charge for these services or force them on anyone, and we continue to contact many of these women and their families.
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Pregnancy centers play a crucial role in their communities. In 2024 alone, these centers provided 600,000 free ultrasounds, 200,000 STD tests, 6.3 million packs of diapers and 39,000 car seats – more than $452 million in support for women who said they would prefer to continue their pregnancies if they could find this kind of support.
Platkin described people who make these types of investments in the lives of others as “extremists.” Our customers describe them as people who were there to help when no one else was. And I would describe them as the hands and feet of God.
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By going after our center, New Jersey officials have used taxpayer dollars and the vast resources of the government to keep us from helping women dealing with unplanned pregnancies. But fortunately, the Supreme Court has now ruled that when these officials attack and harass their ideological opponents, they will be held accountable in federal court for violating constitutional rights.
The women of New Jersey – and countless other Americans – will be better off for that decision.
