Anti-abortion groups sue Illinois over expanded consumer fraud law targeting crisis pregnancy centers

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) – Several organizations opposing abortion quickly filed a lawsuit Thursday against Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul for a new law targeting crisis pregnancy centers.

On Thursday, Pritzker signed off on expanding and clarifying Illinois’ consumer fraud laws to crisis pregnancy centers, which are normally supported by groups who oppose abortion.

The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a national network of pregnancy help centers, and several centers in Illinois filed a federal lawsuit seeking a restraining order and injunction against the state’s enforcement.

During a press conference Thursday, officials with Planned Parenthood and the state said crisis centers use deceptive practices to sway women from getting abortions.

“For decades, these centers have targeted Planned Parenthood of Illinois patients with offers of free services like pregnancy tests or ultrasounds. The goal of these centers is simple; they’re trying to get people in their doors to stop them from having an abortion,” said Jennifer Welch, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “Many of these clinics provide misleading and medically inaccurate information. ‘Abortion causes breast cancer, and abortion will make you infertile,’ these things are simply not true.”

“Don’t lie to people. Don’t lie to people. Don’t take people away from where they were intending to go,” Raoul said.

Members of these anti-abortion groups admit to waiting near entrances of Planned Parenthood to deter women from getting abortions but refute using deceitful tactics.

“All of these other states are either restricting abortion or completely eliminating abortion in their state, so Governor Pritzker and the abortion lobby is trying to become the place in the Midwest for abortions,” said Brian Westbrook, the executive director of Coalition Life, an anti-abortion group based out of St. Louis. “We actually get to meet these women at these abortion facilities, and we’ve seen numerous of these clients turn around and leave and decide not to go through with the abortion. We at Coalition Life have never been deceptive and certainly are law-abiding. They go out, and they show these options. They talk with these women, and they want to provide free resources. Based on our strong conservative viewpoints and religious freedoms–not going to refer a client to an abortion facility. So, we’re going to omit that piece of data, and, certainly, the attorney general may come after us and other pregnancy centers because we are doing that.”

A number of websites identify these so-called fake or faith clinics across the state. Several are located in the Metro East, like Mosaic Health. Besides free resources, Mosaic’s website states it doesn’t provide referrals to abortion services.

The pregnancy centers have won in court before. A 2016 law requiring them to provide information on where clients could get an abortion was halted by a federal appeals court and still awaits trial court argument. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2018 that a similar law in California was unconstitutional.

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