California News

A couple bits of potentially good news from California today! In San Francisco, city officials have introduced consumer protection legislation regarding "crisis pregnancy centers" and misleading advertising. If you recall, similar legislation was recently ruled against in NYC. However, SF officials think they've written it well enough to stand any legal challenge.

Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced an ordinance on Tuesday that if passed, would prohibit so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" from making misleading or incomplete statements about their missions and scope.

Also Tuesday, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said he had contacted a San Francisco Bay Area center called First Resort about its advertising practices. He has warned the center that if it does not clarify its Web site to specifically state it does not provide abortions or make referrals to abortion clinics, he will take legal action.

The First Resort people are making noise about this and are sure of themselves that they can challenge the ordinance.

Elsewhere in California, gov Jerry Brown signed into law legislation sought by the LA school district that is regarding creating disturbances near schools. This was done in response to a 2003 protest by the anti-abortion group "Center for Bio-Ethical Reform". The center put up graphic, billboard-size pictures of what they claim to be aborted fetuses on trucks and drove in circles around a middle school for hours--which frightened, upset, and distracted students (some who stopped mid-street to stare).

The legislation, which takes effect Jan. 1, creates a new misdemeanor crime for creating a disturbance on or next to an elementary or middle school campus where the action threatens the physical safety of students.

The center says the law is "meaningless". The center, by the way, won in federal court three years ago when the court found the school district & the police violated the center's First Amendment rights when they told them to go away from the school.