Attorney General Matthew Platikin (D) targeted First Choice Women's Resource Centers with a subpoena requesting a wide range of documents regarding its practices. If the organization does not produce the extensive documentation requested, it will face judicial sanctions. The attorney general did not reference any substantive evidence of wrongdoing before issuing the subpoena.
First Choice Women's Resource Centers serve New Jersey women by providing free ultrasounds, STD testing, and pregnancy consultations.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing First Choice in its lawsuit against Platkin.
“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.”
Attorneys with the Thomas More Society recently defeated Illinois SB 1909 in court for similar reasons. Pro-lifers and their organizations have constitutional rights under the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment protecting them from political prosecution.