Monday, April 03, 2006

ACLU vs. the First Amendment

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) with the endorsement of the ACLU has proposed legislation regulating the advertising of pregnancy counseling centers that do not offer abortion. While the ostensible purpose is to prevent people from saying that they offer abortion when they do not, my guess is that what proponents really want is for these services to explicitly identify themselves as pro-life, rather than call themselves something neutral like "Crisis Pregnancy Center." There would apparently be no requirement that abortion mills identify as such.

It is no longer odd to see the ACLU supporting restrictions on free speech. Its notion of what should and should not be a civil liberty is thoroughly grounded in a leftist critique of society (even when they do things like represent Nazis; you look to the principles that they do and do not support; not the clients they represent.)

Maybe it ought to consider truth in its own advertising.

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