Heartbeat International filed an amicus brief on behalf of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers in New Jersey in the Centers’ legal fight before the U.S. Supreme Court over a controversial investigation by the state’s attorney general.
First Choice is asking the Supreme Court in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin to allow it to challenge the investigation by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin in federal court.
Platkin had demanded that First Choice disclose the names, phone numbers, addresses, and place of employment of many of its donors, plus up to 10 years of its internal confidential documents, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) the legal non-profit representing the group of five faith-based pregnancy centers.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally and is named in Platkin’s subpoena along with the Care Net pregnancy help network as having engaged in communications with First Choice.
The subpoena’s demand for the private communications of out-of-state national associations has real-world chilling effects on First Amendment rights, Heartbeat International argues in its brief.
The demand “chills speech and association far beyond the borders of New Jersey,” Heartbeat’s August 28 amicus brief states. “The subpoena’s sweep does not merely burden groups within the Attorney General’s statewide jurisdiction but also throws a pall on speech and expressive association nationwide.”
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
First Choice Women’s Resource provides medical services to women and families facing unplanned pregnancy in New Jersey. The network of pregnancy help medical clinics began offering services in 1985 and has served over 36,000 women.
Platkin has targeted First Choice because of its religious and pro-life views by issuing a subpoena and opening “an unjustified and unfounded investigation” against it, according to ADF.
Platkin has provided no complaint or evidence suggesting that First Choice has engaged in unlawful or unethical actions, ADF said.
ADF first filed suit on behalf of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers against Platkin in December 2023. First Choice attempted to challenge Platkin’s demand in federal court, but the lower federal courts said that First Choice must pursue its federal claims in state court first.
The First Amendment protects donor identities from unjustified disclosure and prohibits a state official for retaliating against speech with which he or she disagrees, AFD said. Therefore, though First Choice responded to the subpoena and produced roughly 2,300 pages of documents, the pregnancy help network filed suit in federal court to stop Platkin’s attempt to obtain further documents.
“New Jersey’s attorney general is targeting First Choice—a ministry that provides parenting classes, free ultrasounds, baby clothes, and more to its community—simply because of its pro-life views,” ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, vice president of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice, said in a statement.
Hawley will be arguing for ADF in court on behalf of First Choice.
“The Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from demands by a hostile state official to disclose their identities, and First Choice is entitled to vindicate those rights in federal court,” Hawley said. “We are looking forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and urging it to hold that First Choice has the same right to federal court as any other civil rights plaintiff.”
Heartbeat International’s president expressed solidarity with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers while denouncing Platkin’s action against the pregnancy help medical clinics.
“We trust the Supreme Court will clearly see this highly aggressive action against First Choice is but another example of abortion state politicians doing the bidding of their abortion industry funders,” Jor-El Godsey said. “Instead of protecting and promoting life-affirming ministry aiding women, New Jersey piles on with their own attack against these grassroots, locally supported efforts by targeting their kind-hearted donors.”
Earlier this year, Republicans in the New Jersey Assembly filed articles of impeachment against Platkin, accusing him of targeting “certain organizations based upon the political beliefs of the organization, specifically pro-life pregnancy centers.”
Tweet This: This aggressive action against First Choice is another example of abortion state politicians doing the bidding of the abortion industry.
Pro-life pregnancy centers, along with numerous other organizations from a range of ideological standpoints, submitted amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to hear the case against Platkin.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin in June of this year.
Aimee Huber, executive director of First Choice, criticized Platkin’s subpoena as well.
“For more than two years, Attorney General Platkin has been pursuing a personal and political vendetta against First Choice and other pregnancy centers, targeting us with an aggressive demand requesting sensitive documents, including our donors’ identities,” Huber said. “He has shown a willingness to bend the law to frustrate the important work we do—work that has made a tangible, life-and-death difference for tens of thousands of New Jersey women and their children. The government can’t harass those who support pro-life ministries just because it disagrees with their message.”
Heartbeat International Assistant General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer Adam Mathews spoke to the importance of caring for both the women served by pregnancy help centers and donor privacy.
“Standing against this affront by the attorney general of New Jersey defends them both, allowing us to continue working in the culture of life," Mathews said.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
