Records reveal Planned Parenthood’s post-‘Dobbs’ plan against pro-life groups
Caroline MolloyRecords obtained after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision describe a 14-point strategy in which Planned Parenthood urged state attorneys general to take a series of actions involving pro-life pregnancy help centers and abortion policy.
The July 2022 plan called on attorneys general to provide public information about pregnancy centers and to pursue practices Planned Parenthood characterized as misleading or deceptive. It also encouraged officials to ask federal regulators to address information about abortion-inducing drugs.
Other recommendations included issuing legal guidance supporting abortion access, strengthening enforcement involving abortion facilities, and coordinating legal representation for women seeking abortions, abortion providers and organizations that fund abortions.
Several Democratic attorneys general later took actions similar to recommendations described in the records. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a consumer alert concerning pregnancy help centers in August 2022, while New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a similar warning later that year.
Platkin’s office later subpoenaed First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a Christian pregnancy help organization, seeking information that included donor records. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled unanimously that First Choice could challenge the subpoena in federal court on First Amendment grounds.
