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Maribel Arias was a Mexican immigrant to New York City with few local contacts or friends. After discovering that Arias was pregnant, both her boyfriend and her only nearby relative abandoned her.

"I had no help from anyone," says Arias, who was 28 at the time. "I felt my whole world was coming to an end."

Encouraged by a friend to visit the Expectant Mother Care (EMC) center in the South Bronx, Arias arrived at the center still undecided on whether she would have an abortion.

But after talking with center Director Ishmael Rodriguez, who showed Arias a video about abortion and told her she could stay at a shelter for pregnant women, Arias decided to keep her baby.

"They gave me a lot of moral support," Arias says. "They helped me realize I would survive this."

Despite such success stories, crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in New York are fighting a pitched battle for survival.

In January, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer subpoenaed reams of documents pertaining to their operating procedures to determine whether the centers have engaged in "false advertising and deceptive business practices" and the unlicensed practice of medicine. The subpoenas covered 24 pregnancy centers and demanded the names of all staff members, their credentials, training materials, promotional information, and all policies relating to client referrals.

The centers mounted an aggressive defense. Attorneys filed petitions in seven New York courts to quash the subpoenas. They argued that the attorney general lacked evidence and was attempting to regulate noncommercial speech and the right to free association, protected under the Constitution. They said that Spitzer's legal actions stem from his close ties with the abortion rights movement.

Their efforts worked. Spitzer withdrew the subpoenas on February 27, but announced that one of the 24 centers had agreed to change its practices.

Most of the 24 centers, though, are in no mood to make concessions. "We hope this outcome in the abortion capital of the United States sends a clear message nationwide that [pregnancy centers] will no longer allow their First Amendment rights to be trammeled," chief litigation counsel Nathan Adams of the Christian Legal Society said in a statement. Adams is representing five of the 24 centers and three national parent organizations.

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp says the subpoenas were withdrawn to foster discussions with the centers. Birthright of Victor New York Inc. is one center that agreed to new restrictions.

"The attorney general preyed on the smallest CPC in the state and got them to cave on severe restrictions of their First Amendment rights," says EMC founder Chris Slattery, whose five centers remain under investigation. "This is the most restrictive set of regulations on a CPC's operations ever established."

The agreement requires Birthright to clearly inform those who inquire about abortion that it does not provide abortions or abortion referrals. It must disclose verbally and in writing that it is not a licensed medical provider qualified to diagnose pregnancy. Birthright must also state in its advertising that its pregnancy tests are self-administered and tell those who call or visit that it is not a medical facility.

Dopp says the agreement is closely modeled on consent decrees two previous New York attorneys general reached with CPCs. Birthright says its agreement differs substantially from an earlier consent judgment and will not remove any of the center's constitutional rights.

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April 22 2002, Vol. 46, No. 5