(CNSNews.com) - The founder of a pro-life crisis pregnancy center in New York City says his freedom of speech and religion are under attack by the state's attorney general who has launched an investigation into whether the center and others like it provided "deceptive" medical information to pregnant women.

The office of New York Democratic Attorney General Elliot Spitzer began issuing subpoenas to several crisis pregnancy centers Friday. Other centers expect to be served with the legal papers this week.

According to a subpoena obtained by CNSNews.com, Spitzer's initial investigation revealed that the centers "may have violated one or more ... statutes by misrepresenting the services they provide, diagnosing pregnancy and advising persons on medical options without being licensed to do so, and/or providing deceptive and inaccurate medical information."

Under orders of the subpoena, the centers, before Feb. 1, must provide copies of all advertisements, Web site addresses, services provided, staff who provide the services, training materials, blank forms, records of all agreements made, and a list of all persons who received any service from the clinics.

Chris Slattery, the founder of Expectant Mother Care, which operates five centers in New York City, says the investigation and "probable lawsuit" are "an attack on the heart and soul of the pro-life movement's compassionate wing."

"They have attacked the freedom of religion and speech, to counsel the doubtful women who are considering an abortion alternative like marriage and adoption," Slattery said.

Slattery has undertaken the task of gathering a legal team to defend the New York crisis pregnancy centers. He says there are more than 100 centers in the state, and 15 spread throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The centers have been in operation since the mid-1980s, offering women a variety of options to deal with their unwanted pregnancy, options other than abortion.

Because of complaints that the crisis pregnancy centers were failing to make clear what services they provided, a law was passed in the 1980s requiring the centers to label themselves "abortion alternatives" in phone books. Most of the centers offer adoption services, placement into maternity homes, free pre-natal care, free ultrasounds, free counseling, and free child care supplies after the child is born.

The pregnancy crisis centers do not take any public funds, only private donations. They are recognized as a 501(c) 3 charity. Churches, organizations, and individuals make up the crisis pregnancy centers' donor pool.

"What they really want us to do is to put crosses in our ads, say we are pro-life and [tell the public] 'don't call,'" Slattery said. "And if a woman does call, say 'don't come in because we don't offer abortions,' and if they do come in, then they want us to say 'please wait until we have a licensed professional to counsel you who will be morally neutral on abortion, who will give you non-directive counseling.'

"They seem to feel we are deceptive if we advertise under 'abortion alternatives,' that we offer confidential counseling, medical and safety information and free ultrasounds, when we do," he said.

Slattery said the next step for the crisis pregnancy centers is to "quash the subpoenas that [Spitzer's office] is issuing." Slattery said he also wants to uncover the "conspiracy between the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and the attorney general to shut down the crisis pregnancy centers."

Slattery predicts a "snowball effect" if the subpoenas lead to lawsuits, and eventually lead to the demise of the crisis pregnancy center.

"This attack, if successful, will have ripple effects nationwide," Slattery said. "Because if they can successfully ban counseling by volunteer, lay people, this could spread across the country and literally cripple the volunteer movement that is the heart and soul of compassionate abortion alternatives counseling."

Spitzer's office refused to comment. Repeated calls placed to the NARAL were not returned.