Texas AG hits Yelp with lawsuit over crisis pregnancy center disclaimer

Texas Yelp lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Yelp Inc. and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have filed lawsuits against each other.
• Why: Paxton claims Yelp misinformed consumers and discriminated against crisis pregnancy centers with a notice it posted to its website. Yelp argues it was truthful and that it is protected by the First Amendment. 
• Where: Yelp’s lawsuit was filed in California federal court. Paxton filed his lawsuit in the District Court of Bastrop County, Texas. 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a complaint against Yelp Inc. last month over claims the review website misinformed consumers about crisis pregnancy centers in the wake of  the Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. 

Paxton argues Yelp misinformed consumers by posting a notice on its website last August that crisis pregnancy centers “typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.”

The recently reinstated attorney general claims Yelp also discriminated against crisis pregnancy centers by publishing the notice, calling it “misleading and overbroad” in a letter he and 23 other state attorney generals drafted to the CEO of Yelp in February. 

In the letter, the attorneys general said the notice misrepresented the medical services provided at crisis pregnancy centers, while arguing they include pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, according to the Yelp lawsuit. 

“The Attorneys General explained that to the extent any businesses should be flagged for providing limited medical services, or for not having licensed medical professionals onsite, it should be Planned Parenthood and other similar clinics.

Yelp files suit against Texas AG in effort to avoid being ‘punished’ for ‘publishing truthful information’

Yelp, meanwhile, filed its own lawsuit against Paxton — a day prior to his — in what it said was an attempt at preventing him from “punishing” the company for “publishing truthful information about businesses that offer pregnancy-related counseling to the public.” 

“This threat targets truthful speech fully protected by the First Amendment,” the company states, in its complaint.

Yelp claims it chose to publish the notice after it learned that some crisis pregnancy centers — businesses which offer pregnancy-related counseling but not abortion services — had allegedly been leading individuals seeking abortions away from medical providers. 

The company argues that individuals seeking abortions were instead being led to anti-abortion counseling services, and so it chose to publish its notice so that its users could make “informed” choices. 

Yelp claims further that, after receiving backlash for its initial notice, that it ultimately updated the notice to simply state that crisis pregnancy centers do not offer abortions nor offer referrals to abortion providers, a message it argues even Paxton admits is “accurate.” 

A group of five women filed a lawsuit against Paxton and Texas in March over claims they were denied abortion access in the state despite being in a medical crisis. 

Do you believe Yelp discriminated against crisis pregnancy centers? Let us know in the comments! 

The Texas Yelp lawsuits are Yelp Inc. v. Ken Paxton, Case No. 3:23-cv-04977, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and State of Texas v. Yelp Inc., Case No. 2519-335, in the District Court of Bastrop County, Texas. 

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