Appeals court strikes down Baltimore law targeting disclaimers at pregnancy centers

A federal appeals court unanimously found Baltimore’s ordinance to make pregnancy centers post signs about abortion is unconstitutional.

The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the ordinance, which requires pregnancy care centers run by anti-abortion groups to post notices that they don't provide abortions in their waiting rooms, violates the First Amendment.

The three-judge panel ruled that the ordinance compelled a “politically and religiously motivated group to convey a message fundamentally at odds with its core belief and mission,” according to the opinion written by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a President Ronald Reagan appointee.

He was joined by Judges Allyson Duncan and G. Steven Agee, both appointed by former President George W. Bush.

The case centered on the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, a nonprofit Christian organization that aims to deter women from getting abortions.

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