Posted by
PLH on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:06:33 PM
Monday night (November 23) the Baltimore, MD city council passed a law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to post signs at their clinics stating they "do not provide or make referrals for abortion or birth-control services." The sponsor of the bill, Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said the vote was a "victory for women's well-being" and claimed women are being misled in crisis pregnancy centers.
How is it the left in this country goes about with the belief they have the right to stifle the speech and opinions of those on the right? Imagine a city council passing a law requiring Planned Parenthood to put up signs in their clinics stating they "primarily won't be helping you plan parenthood but instead seek an abortion." The left would go crazy.
Understand what the crisis pregnancy centers in Baltimore, and for that matter throughout the country, are doing. They give advice and free (or relatively inexpensive) medical care to women, usually single and/or poor, who are pregnant but do not have the support structure around them to properly care for their child. They are non-profit organizations (unlike the business driven Planned Parenthood which of course receives insurance money for abortions performed) that help these women with "utility bills, job referrals, maternity clothes, or prenatal vitamins" (to quote Carol A. Clews, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Concerns, one of the affected centers.) This is of course sinister stuff since in the eyes of the Baltimore Council it would be better if they first advised the women on how to kill their baby instead of doing what is natural for a mother, which is to nurture her child. People are not "being misled," they are being given advice on their pregnancy and are being helped. How is this anymore misleading than the abortion clinic telling a young pregnant mother that her child will not have a chance to succeed and that the young mother will not be able to properly raise her child?
Abortion is, unfortunately, legal in this country. I am willing to bet, nearly every woman who walks into one of those pregnancy centers is aware they can get an abortion, and not need anyone's permission. Could it be these women decide to go to these centers to hear what other options they have? (Again, since Planned Parenthood doesn't plan for parenthood.) Listening to the elected leaders of Baltimore, you would think the pregnancy centers are holding these women hostage until they decide to keep their children. (Speaking of which, since taking hostages isn't terrorist activity anymore, maybe this option should be considered.)
Clearly the Baltimore Council passed this law just to make a statement on the abortion debate and showed us how stupid they think the regular folk are in their city. (They may have a point though seeing as people still pay to see the Orioles play baseball, but I digress.) Maybe next they can require Christian churches to place signs stating Islam is not taught there.
What this boils down to though is an attack on the freedom of speech of those running the crisis pregnancy centers. They are not doing anything illegal, they are not preventing someone from doing something they have a legal right to do, and the services they provide could not even be attacked as false advertising. Obviously pro-lifers operating these clinics have a vested interest in women choosing life. (The vested interest being the human life.) In a sense, it is no different than the makers of Coke having a vested interest in promoting Coke. Should a Coke distributor (this being Baltimore, I'm referring to the drink, not the narcotic) have to put up a sign that says no Pepsi products are distributed here? Of course not, but just as we frequently see those on the left wanting to limit talk radio (to shut up the conservative voices that dominate the airwaves), they act as if they have carte blanche to limit the speech of conservatives, in this case pro-lifers.
My hope is the mayor of Baltimore, Sheila Dixon, will veto this ordinance when it reaches her desk, but my fear is that she, like many on the left hold to the viewpoint that freedom of speech is only for those with opinions like hers.
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