North Carolina’s new anti-abortion law, the “Women’s Right to Know Act,” goes into effect today minus a controversial provision that requires women to
“„It is undisputed that the Act compels content-based speech by providers; it requires providers to orally and visually convey specified material about the fetus to their patients. The message is compelled regardless of a patient’s individual circumstances or condition and regardless of the provider’s medical opinion. The message is required even when the provider does not want to deliver the message and even when the patients affirmatively do not wish to see it or hear it. It is further undisputed that this implicates the First Amendment rights of providers such as the Plaintiffs. [...]
“„The Supreme Court has historically taken a dim view of content-based speech compelled by the government, finding it to violate the First Amendment in the absence of a compelling state interest in a wide variety of circumstances. … Based on the record before it, the Court finds that the Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of the First Amendment challenge. [...]