News

By Meg Jalsevac

NEW YORK, October 31, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York abortion clinic known as Dr. Emily Women’s Health Center has settled a lawsuit filed against them last month on the condition that they cease advertising their services under the ‘abortion alternative’ heading in phone directories or online directories.

The lawsuit was filed by the Expectant Mother Care Pregnancy Center (EMC) and was settled in the State Supreme Court in White Plains, NY. EMC is a pro-life organization that operates clinics in New York and New Jersey to offer life-giving choices and assistance to pregnant women.

Dr. Emily Women’s Health Center was represented by attorneys from the NYCLU which is the New York branch of the ACLU.

In the lawsuit, EMC accused Dr. Emily Women’s Health Center of using selective language for their directory listings depending on what heading the listing was under. Its listing under the heading ‘abortion provider’ used terminology such as “gentle abortion”, “no-pain anesthesia” and “abortion pill for natural at-home experience.” The listing under the ‘abortion alternative’ heading did not include any such terminology.

Ambassador Yellow Pages describes businesses listed under the ‘abortion alternative’ heading as those businesses which “do not provide information and/or counseling on the attainment of abortion services nor do they provide abortion services.”

In the settlement terms the Women’s Health Center agreed to “immediately and permanently refrain from advertising in the “abortion alternatives” section” of any directory.

Chris Slattery, Founder and President of EMC said that the fact that the abortion clinic reached a settlement signified that “they had absolutely no case. There’s no First Amendment right to outright fraud and deception”

Because directories are organized alphabetically according to the headings, ‘abortion alternatives’ come before ‘abortion providers’. When pregnant women turn to the phone book or other such directory, ‘abortion alternative’ listings are what they see first. Slattery said directories are “a space where we get the first shot at reaching abortion minded women who will see our ads first.”

Slattery said that this legal victory was a great step for the pro-life movement in New York because “our advertisements in the Yellow Pages are our largest means of reaching women in crisis pregnancies who are considering abortion.”

According to Slattery, two-thirds of the women who contact EMC for assistance end up choosing life for their child.