Texas court tosses Paxton lawsuit against Yelp over labeling of 'crisis pregnancy centers'

A Bastrop County state District Court on Friday shot down Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's lawsuit against Yelp for labeling "crisis pregnancy centers," which often counsel women against having abortions, with disclaimers stating that they "typically provide limited medical services" and do not provide abortions.

After the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 dismantled federal abortion protections established in Roe v. Wade, Yelp posted disclaimers on its site to alert potential customers that the centers "may not have licensed medical professionals onsite." In February 2023, Yelp updated the notices to state that the crisis pregnancy centers do not provide abortion services.

The attorney general's office sued Yelp on Sept. 28 for supposedly violating Texas' Deceptive Trade Practices Act, arguing that the notices were "misleading and often untrue because pregnancy resource centers frequently do provide medical services with licensed medical professionals onsite," though that information does not directly contradict the language of the notices.

Republican Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett dismissed all claims against Yelp "with prejudice," which means that the court's decision was based on the merits of the case and that Paxton cannot file the same lawsuit in the 355th District Court again. Towslee-Corbett also granted Yelp's objection, thereby agreeing that the state of Texas did not have the jurisdiction to bring its claims.

“We are pleased with the court’s decision, which rightfully recognizes the case should never have been filed in Texas,” said Haynes Boone media law attorney Laura Prather, who represented Yelp. "We are dedicated to protecting our clients' right to free speech."

In his complaint, Paxton had asked the judge to block Yelp from posting the disclaimers and sought monetary damages of $1 million or more from the tech behemoth.

"Yelp cannot mislead and deceive the public simply because the company disagrees with our state’s laws,” Paxton wrote in a Feb. 14 press release.

Texas bans all abortions except in cases where the pregnant person's life is at risk.

In an emailed statement, Yelp stood by its decision to label the pregnancy centers and called the lawsuit meritless.

The company noted that Paxton had referred to labels stating the centers do not provide abortions as "accurate." Yelp called the lawsuit filed by Paxton's office a concerning attempt to subvert First Amendment rights.

Paxton's office did not immediately respond to the American-Statesman's request for comment.

The "crisis pregnancy centers” or "pregnancy resource centers" have become a focus in the renewed debate about abortion rights. The goal of these facilities is typically to dissuade women from having abortions, though supporters say they provide necessary care and counseling.

In 2020, before Roe was overturned, there were about 800 abortion clinics in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on reproductive rights. Researchers put the number of crisis pregnancy centers at anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000.

Paxton's office had announced it won a "major victory" in the case on Feb. 5, after a California court dismissed a lawsuit that Yelp filed to have Paxton's case preliminarily blocked. But the court's decision also said "Yelp’s allegations of bad faith" on the part of the attorney general "tell a persuasive story."

Paxton has used the law cited in his claims against Yelp, the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, to go after out-of-state organizations over other hot-button medical issues, including gender-affirming care.

In November, he invoked the law to demand that hospitals in Georgia and Washington state provide him with the medical records of minor Texas residents who might have received gender-affirming care there, arguing that the hospitals misled children and their parents about treatments like hormone therapy in advertisements. Seattle Children's Hospital asked a court to block Paxton's requests in December, and an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, PFLAG, filed a lawsuit Wednesday evening over the demands, which it called "outrageous and unconstitutional."

The attorney general could appeal the Yelp lawsuit to the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin, but its six Democratic judges would be unlikely to rule in his favor.

Statesman staff writer Hogan Gore contributed reporting.

More: PFLAG National calls Paxton's demand for gender-affirming care records unconstitutional

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Paxton lawsuit over Yelp labeling of 'crisis pregnancy centers' thrown out