Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, Inc. v. Mayor of Baltimore

683 F.3d 539, 2012 WL 2402573
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJune 27, 2012
Docket11-1111, 11-1885
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 683 F.3d 539 (Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, Inc. v. Mayor of Baltimore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, Inc. v. Mayor of Baltimore, 683 F.3d 539, 2012 WL 2402573 (4th Cir. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

Archbishop Edward F. O’Brien, St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Congregation, Inc., and the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, Inc. (“the Pregnancy Center”) commenced this action against the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, challenging the constitutionality of the City’s Ordinance 09-252, which requires that “limited-service pregnancy centers,” such as the Pregnancy Center, post signs disclaiming that they “do[ ] not provide or make referral for abortion or birth control services.” The complaint alleges that the ordinance, both facially and as applied to the plaintiffs, violates the plaintiffs’ free speech, free exercise, and equal protection rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the plaintiffs’ rights under the Conscience Clause of Maryland’s health law.

The district court granted summary judgment to the Pregnancy Center on its freedom of speech count, dismissed the Archbishop and St. Brigid’s as plaintiffs for lack of standing, and dismissed the remaining counts without prejudice, in view of its free speech ruling. The court held that the disclaimer required by Ordinance 09-252 is “a form of compelled speech” that “alters the course of a [pregnancy] center’s communication with a client or prospective client about abortion and birth-control” and “is based, at least in part, on disagreement with the viewpoint of the speaker.” The court entered a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the ordinance. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I

In December 2009, the City of Baltimore enacted Ordinance 09-252. The ordinance applies to “limited-service pregnancy centers,” which are defined as “any person”

(1) whose primary purpose is to provide pregnancy-related services; and
(2) who:
(i) for a fee or as a free service, provides information about pregnancy-related services; but
(ii) does not provide or refer for:
(A) abortions; or
(B) nondirective and comprehensive birth-control services.

Baltimore City Health Code § 3-501. Under the ordinance, “[a] limited-service pregnancy center must provide its clients and potential clients with a disclaimer substantially to the effect that the center does not provide or make referral for abortion or birth-control services.” Id. § 3-502(a). This disclaimer must be made through one or more “easily readable” signs that are [549]*549“conspicuously posted in the center’s waiting room” and written in English and Spanish. Id. § 3 — 502(b). The failure to comply with the terms of the ordinance is punishable by a citation carrying a maximum civil penalty of $150. Id. § S-506.1

The legislative record indicates that the President of the Baltimore City Council introduced Bill 09-406 (later to become Ordinance 09-252), after the City Council President had met with abortion rights advocacy groups, which complained that some pregnancy clinics provide inaccurate information to women about abortions. A spokesperson for the City Council President explained in a public statement: “The Bill deals with whether women are told up front what the facts are. Women need to know up front what to expect when they go into these centers.” The “Bill Synopsis” presented to the City Council stated that the Bill was “introduced because of the ‘importance of choice.’ ”

At the hearings on the Bill, representatives of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, and other pro-choice groups spoke in favor of the Bill, and representatives of the Archbishop, the Maryland Right to Life Committee, and other pro-life groups spoke in opposition. The Bill was enacted in November and became law on December 4, 2009.

The Pregnancy Center is a “limited-service pregnancy center,” as defined in Ordinance 09-252, operating in Baltimore City from two locations and providing services to pregnant women, such as pregnancy testing; classes in prenatal development, post-pregnancy parenting, and life skills; Bible studies; and material support for women through its “Hannah’s Cupboard” program, including diapers, formula, baby and maternity clothes, toys, and books. It also provides women with information on “abstinence and natural family planning, a form of birth control,” but does not provide referrals “for abortions or other methods of birth control.” The Pregnancy Center does not charge its clients for any of its services, which it provides through paid employees and volunteers, each of whom must sign a statement affirming his or her Christian faith and belief that abortion is immoral.

Archbishop Edward F. O’Brien, the Archbishop of Baltimore, is a corporate entity that owns the property on which the Pregnancy Center operates one of its locations and on which St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church operates. Neither the Archbishop nor St. Brigid’s charges the Pregnancy Center for the use of its space on the property.

In March 2010, before any enforcement of Ordinance 09-252, the Archbishop, St. Brigid’s, and the Pregnancy Center commenced this action against the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore,2 alleging violations of the Free Speech and Free Assembly Clauses of the First Amendment, the [550]*550Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Conscience Clause in Maryland Code, Health-General, § 20-214(a)(l) (providing that a “person may not be required to ... refer ... for ... any medical procedure that results in ... termination of pregnancy” and that the refusal to provide abortion referrals “may not be a basis for ... [c]ivil liability to another person ... or ... [disciplinary or other recriminatory action”). The complaint alleges that the Pregnancy Center does not provide or refer for abortions, “based on moral and religious beliefs,” and that Ordinance 09-252 specifically targets pro-life pregnancy centers such as the Pregnancy Center and thus “regulates communications at the Pregnancy Center that are personal, moral, political, and religious.” It also states that “by requiring a disclaimer that the [pregnancy] center does not provide or refer for abortions, the ordinance compels plaintiffs to deliver the implied message that these services are available elsewhere and should be considered,” thus appearing to legitimize such services, in violation of the plaintiffs’ beliefs. The complaint also objects to the ordinance’s requirement that the Pregnancy Center “post a sign saying that it does not provide birth control services,” when in fact it does “in the form of education about abstinence and natural family planning,” which, the complaint asserts, are medically recognized means of birth control. The plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that the ordinance is unconstitutional on its face and/or as applied to plaintiffs and an injunction prohibiting the ordinance’s enforcement. Some two months after they filed their complaint but before the City filed its answer, the plaintiffs also filed a motion for partial summary judgment on their free speech and equal protection claims.

The City filed a motion to dismiss under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), alleging that the Archbishop and St.

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Bluebook (online)
683 F.3d 539, 2012 WL 2402573, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greater-baltimore-center-for-pregnancy-concerns-inc-v-mayor-of-baltimore-ca4-2012.