BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Options Care Center is a Jamestown-based pregnancy center that promotes alternatives to abortion and provides free services including pregnancy tests, parenting classes and material assistance.
The organization used to provide literature regarding a progesterone treatment it suggested could reverse the effects of medication-based abortion.
"We want to ensure that our clients are making well-informed decisions about their pregnancies but if the attorney general gets her way, our clients won't know about abortion pill reversal because of government censorship," Executive Director Jessie Anderson said.
In May, the New York attorney general sued anti-abortion group Heartbeat International and 11 centers across the state in state Supreme Court in Monroe County for allegedly using false and misleading statements to advertise an unproven and potentially unsafe treatment. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton said other centers are now afraid to share information.
"Because the attorney general has gone after them through an enforcement action that has a potential for fines up to $5,000 per instance that the attorney general identifies, that has a chilling impact on speech across the state," Dalton said.
Dalton is representing Options Care and two other organizations in a federal free speech lawsuit. On Thursday, attorneys made arguments before a judge in Buffalo.
"The court did indicate that it's planning on moving hopefully in the next few weeks and said there's some complicated issues. Certainly, the attorney general has tried to complicate this case more than it should be but at it's core, it's a core fundamental First Amendment issue and we're hoping that the court will rule in our favor," he said.
The Thomas More Society is defending Heartbeat International in the state case and is representing two more organizations similarly suing the attorney general in federal court.
"In every case, we've got scientific studies. We've got thousands of babies, actual babies, alive today, that you can point to, that show this procedure works," Executive Vice President Peter Breen said.
The organizations believe if the federal judge rules in their favor it could be beneficial to their position not only in the state case but in other cases across the country.
"To try to drag people into court arguing about our studies contradict your studies, your studies are weak, our studies are strong, is ridiculous. There's no place in a courtroom for a scientific debate," Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Christopher Ferrara said.
Spectrum News 1 was not able to connect with the attorney general's office for a statement Thursday but in a May release she said:
"Amid the increase in attacks on reproductive health care nationwide, we must protect pregnant people’s right to make safe, well-informed decisions about their health. Your reproductive health care decisions are yours and yours alone, and my office will always protect New Yorkers from those who push a scientifically unproven and potentially life-threatening intervention.”