Anti-Abortion ‘Clinics’ Phone Book Ad Barred

A Superior Court judge has barred a San Diego facility alleged to be an anti-abortion counseling center from advertising in the medical “Clinics” section of next year’s Pacific Bell Yellow Pages.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller ruled Tuesday that the Center for Unplanned Pregnancy, near San Diego State University, is not licensed to act as a clinic under state law and an ad representing it as a clinic is likely to deceive pregnant women.

The center’s ad appears in the “Clinics” section of the 1992-93 San Diego Pacific Bell Yellow Pages. With the deadline approaching for the 1993-94 edition, due out next March, Miller ruled that center officials could still place the ad--but in either the “Abortion Alternatives Organizations” or “Women’s Organizations & Services” sections.

The ruling marked the first stage of a lawsuit brought Oct. 26 by Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside counties against four San Diego-area counseling centers.

The suit alleges that each of the four centers is a bogus clinic designed to talk women out of terminating pregnancies.

Named in the suit are the Center for Unplanned Pregnancy, San Diego Pregnancy Services, Escondido Pregnancy Services and the Poway Pregnancy Counseling Center.

Only the Center for Unplanned Pregnancy was in court this week because it was the only one of the four centers seeking to place an ad in the “Clinics” section of the San Diego Yellow Pages.

Miller is due to take up the case again Nov. 25.