It’s no secret there are passionate people on both sides of the abortion issue. Pro-life activists believe it is their mission to preserve life in the womb. Pro-abortion people believe it is a women’s “right to choose” abortion rather than life. But recently it seems that there is a nationwide campaign by some state governments to take away a women’s right to choose if they choose life.

Sierra Dawn McClain, writing in The Wall Street Journal, tells us, “Politicians and attorneys general in states run by Democrats have been on a crusade to make life miserable for pregnancy resource centers, and the campaign has picked up since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022. This has included harassing them with legal action and trying to discredit their work.”

Pregnancy resource centers provide women facing unplanned pregnancies with free and low-cost support such as counseling on alternatives to abortion, parenting education, medical referrals and material goods. These centers in 2022 provided clients across the U.S. with services valued at more than $367 million, including more than 500,000 free ultrasounds, 3.5 million packs of diapers and 43,000 car seats according to McClain.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is a faith-based New Jersey nonprofit. First Choice has supported more than 36,000 women facing unplanned pregnancies since 1985 and doesn’t charge for its services. Yet rather than praise the nonprofit, New Jersey officials are harassing it because of its pro-life stance. Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin last November issued a subpoena demanding that it turn over a broad range of documents. He did so under the pretense of conducting a civil investigation into possible violations of state laws and regulations, but attorneys representing First Choice wrote in a court filing challenging the subpoena that Mr. Platkin “has never cited any complaint or other substantive evidence of wrongdoing to justify his demands.”

The attorney general’s order requires First Choice to dig up and hand over documents going back 10 years, including personal information about employees, volunteers, affiliates and donations. “Collecting that information would be completely overwhelming,” Aimee Huber, First Choice’s executive director, said in an interview. “It would take multiple hours per day and take us away from our mission of serving women.” Ms. Huber is also concerned that the information could be used to badger and intimidate the nonprofit’s pro-life supporters.

A core plank of Mr. Platkin’s investigation is the assertion that First Choice may be misleading the public and thus violating consumer-fraud law. This isn’t the first time he has made such a claim about pregnancy resource centers. Mr. Platkin and the attorneys general of 14 other mostly blue states and the District of Columbia laid out this theory in an open letter in October 2023. They claim that pregnancy centers set up shop near health clinics, use deceptive tactics to lure in women seeking abortions, then give them misleading information about the procedure to trick them into carrying their babies to term.

McClain says, “It’s no secret that pregnancy resource centers are pro-life and that they inform their clients about the potential negative physical and mental health effects of abortion. It’s also well known that these nonprofits consider it a win—for the mother and her child—when she chooses not to have an abortion. First Choice states on its website and in conversations with clients that it doesn’t provide or refer for abortions. Yet Mr. Platkin’s consumer-fraud argument is one piece of a broad smear campaign. In December 2022 his office issued a consumer alert warning the public to be wary of the centers, which “seek to prevent people from accessing comprehensive reproductive health care.”

This is not an isolated effort by the attorney general. Emails obtained through a public-records request show that the attorney general’s office asked Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, to preview and edit the draft consumer alert before it was issued—a clear conflict of interest. In addition to slamming pregnancy centers, the consumer alert urged women seeking abortions to check out Planned Parenthood’s website. The attorney general’s office and Planned Parenthood declined to comment on their collaboration.

It is clear from this situation that those who claim they are “pro-choice” only want women to have a choice if they choose abortion.