Another Important Law Jerry Brown Signed Last Week.

Jerry Brown is herding our cats pretty well.

I missed this one, but it's pretty good:

California on Friday became the only state to target anti-abortion pregnancy centers with a law cracking down on deceptive practices some have used to prevent or dissuade women from having an abortion.

The new law, which forces some crisis pregnancy centers to offer information about public assistance for reproductive services and others to notify patients that there are no medical professionals on staff, passed the California state assembly with a large majority in late May. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed the bill on Friday night.

[...]

Reproductive rights advocates and public health officials have long sought to raise alarms about crisis pregnancy centers. Run by anti-abortion groups, crisis pregnancy centers sometimes provide pregnant women with misleading medical information in order to discourage them from ending their pregnancies. Others are ambiguous about whether they perform abortions or not in order to get women through the door. According to an investigation by NARAL, almost half of California's crisis pregnancy centers promulgate the popular anti-abortion myth that terminating a pregnancy is linked to a patient’s chances of developing breast cancer. At the same time, NARAL claims, a majority of the state's crisis pregnancy centers present themselves as neutral on the issue of abortion.

Abortion foes deny that crisis pregnancy centers engage in such subterfuge. "A woman knows her options," says Sandra Palacios, a government relations executive with the California Catholic Conference, which opposed the law. "Women are smart. They know where they’re walking into—a safe place where they can get all the information about abortion alternatives."

When I was still teaching high school, I noticed one of these clinics near my school. The clinic tried to buy an ad in the school yearbook -- I taught the class that published it -- which forced me to find out what principles the clinic stood for. When I found out they were a fake abortion provider that showered their customers with anti-abortion religious propaganda replete with pictures of fetuses and all sorts of piety and pressure to have the baby, I cancelled the ad.

Though my sense of propriety and instinct for survival (!) would have forced me to deny ad space to Planned Parenthood, as well, at least I'd have to admit Planned Parenthood isn't out to hoodwink its patients.

So, once again, kudos to California for stepping up and keeping the cads at bay.