https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/16/abortion-foes-move-to-block-online-ads-for-reproductive-services-00046195
The Right, in theory, values “free speech.” That claim has already been undermined by the Republican Party’s book bans, anti-CRT, and anti-LGBTQ speech codes. This new movement to criminalize the speech of abortion providers proves once again that’s a lie.
Of course, some states have moved to make abortion a crime in almost every circumstance — even as others have declared it a constitutional right. All signs suggest there will be no bridging this yawning policy chasm for quite some time.
That said, any sensible ruling on this speech topic would recognize that any speech about a political topic as fundamental as abortion is a first-order concern, entitled to the highest degree of constitutional protection, whether pro- or anti-, within every state of the union, regardless of the state’s regulatory scheme.
To rule otherwise would mean ruling for the first time ever that some Americans (due merely to their state of residence) may be legally blocked from hearing a political message that other Americans can. There’s no precedent for something like this — it would be as blatant a First Amendment violation as you could find, and would further widen the division of the United States into two Americas.
But in this climate, who knows what SCOTUS is going to do?
