By Howard Koplowitz
The founder of a dozen pregnancy centers, including two in Queens, said he plans to take legal action against the city after Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed into law a bill requiring such centers to disclose whether they provide abortions, prenatal care and three other services, claiming the legislation is unconstitutional and one-sided.
“These laws only will apply to us as we are currently organized,” said Chris Slattery, founder and president of Expectant Mother Care/EMC Frontline Pregnancy Care Centers, which has two such centers in Jackson Heights and Hollis. “I think this is a political hatchet job. Our freedom’s been stripped with this bill.”
But the New York Civil Liberties Union, which was consulted on the legislation, said it expects the law to survive a lawsuit.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, said some pregnancy centers mislead women by saying they are licensed medical facilities although they are not.
“When pregnancy centers deceive women about their services, they put women in danger by delaying their ability to access real medical care,” she said. “This legislation strikes an appropriate balance between protecting the centers’ right to free speech and women’s right to complete and accurate information when they make critical decisions about their health.”
Slattery said his centers are not deceptive, saying they have a doctor doing prenatal care and ultrasound technicians.
“We’re not pretending,” he said. “We have doctors in our offices.”
City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) said about half of the city’s centers have sonogram machines but do not have appropriately trained staff to used the machines and some facilities look like medical facilities even though they are not licensed.
“I think this is a good bill,” said Ferreras. “This is not about a person’s freedom of speech. This is really about consumer protection.”
Under the law, signed by Bloomberg last Thursday, pregnancy centers have to disclose in both English and Spanish whether they perform abortions and prenatal care, hand out emergency contraception, have physicians on site or offer FDA-approved contraception.
There are 23 pregnancy centers in the city, with 12 operated by Slattery’s organization.
He said the legislation is one-sided because it does not require Planned Parenthood or abortion facilities to advertise services they do not have.
Carmen Biggers, director of the EMC Pregnancy Center, at 89-08 Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights, said the facility has a doctor doing prenatal care once a week, an ultrasound technician at the center twice a week and a nurse providing care just about every day.
Biggers said the law “is unfair because it’s a violation of the First Amendment. We do a lot of good over here. We provide a lot of help for these women. I feel like [the legislation is] invading our territory”
Biggers said the center does not use high-pressure tactics in order to have pregnant women intent on having an abortion to change their minds.
“We tell them that they have other options, but in the end it’s their decision,” she said. “We have a number of women that come here and go and abort.”
Biggers said the Jackson Heights center sees many pregnant women who have been abandoned by their husbands or boyfriends or are poor or both.
“A lot of them, they have low-paying jobs and they think the only option is to abort and they cry and they think there’s no way out of the decision. Some have done several abortions before and don’t want to do it again.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
