NJ attorney general unlawfully targets pro-life pregnancy center

TRENTON, N.J. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed suit against New Jersey’s attorney general Wednesday on behalf of a Christian, pro-life, medical nonprofit that serves pregnant mothers, mothers of newborns, and fathers.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin selectively targeted First Choice Women’s Resource Centers based on its religious speech and pro-life views with a wide-ranging, unfounded, and burdensome subpoena that requires the organization to expend its limited resources to produce extensive documentation or face judicial sanctions. The attorney general does not refer to any substantive evidence of wrongdoing to justify his onerous demands.

“It’s unlawful for New Jersey’s attorney general to use the authority of his office to harm those with whom he disagrees,” said ADF Senior Counsel Lincoln Wilson. “Attorney General Platkin has aligned himself with Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion mission and even enlisted its help to target pro-life pregnancy centers like our client First Choice. The U.S. Constitution protects First Choice Ministry’s right to freely speak its beliefs, freely exercise its faith, freely associate with like-minded individuals and organizations, and continue to provide its free services in a caring and compassionate environment to women and men facing difficult pregnancy circumstances.”

As ADF attorneys explain in the lawsuit, Platkin sought help from Planned Parenthood to draft his office’s consumer alert warning New Jerseyans about pregnancy centers. The attorney general’s demands violate the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and are designed to leverage the threat of sanctions under New Jersey law to frustrate First Choice’s pro-life ministry.

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Trenton Vicinage.

In Washington state, ADF attorneys recently filed a similar lawsuit against that state’s attorney general.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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