LEAGUE HAILS DEFEAT OF ORDINANCE WHICH TARGETED CRISIS
PREGNANCY CENTERS
NOTES BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today is hailing the defeat of a proposed municipal ordinance which targeted pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.
Yesterday evening, August 2nd, the City Council of Easthampton, Massachusetts, in Hampshire County, failed to override the July 6th veto of the proposed ordinance by Mayor Nicole LaChapelle. The mayor, a proponent of legal abortion, cited fiscal concerns arising from litigation which would be expected if the ordinance were to be enacted.
The City Council had passed the measure on July 5th with what was believed to be a veto proof majority. The July 5th vote was 6 to 1, with one abstention.
Last night, two Councilors, including Council President Homar Gomez, changed their positions. The final vote was 5 to 3 to override the veto, one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority.
The measure, which embraced the language of the abortion industry by deriding pro-life centers as “limited service pregnancy centers,” promoted the lie that they are engaged in widespread deceptive advertising, and would have facilitated the legal and bureaucratic harassment of such centers by encouraging Easthampton residents to file consumer complaints against them.
The only pregnancy care center in Easthampton is Bethlehem House, which is affiliated with the Diocese of Springfield. It was vandalized by abortion fanatics in August of 2022.
The Catholic Action League applauded the override failure as “a victory for the First Amendment rights of crisis pregnancy centers, whose faith based ministries offer women compassionate alternatives to abortion.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “This entire movement to target, demonize and restrict crisis pregnancy centers using contrived and unfounded claims of deception has its origins in an abortion industry, which has a compelling financial interest in suppressing its opposition.”
“Many of the lies peddled by this disinformation campaign are extravagant in their recklessness, cynicism and malevolence, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren’s calumny that pro-life citizens mean women harm, or Governor Maura Healey’s claim that crisis pregnancy centers ‘prevent people from accessing abortion and contraception.'”
“What does it say about elected officials who defend abortion, that they are so ready to believe that pro-life Christians are frauds and charlatans who deceive and prey upon women? It tells us that the secular left is populated with intolerant bigots who have a deep seated animus against religious believers, particularly Catholics.”
“Since fiscal prudence and a well founded concern about the costs of litigation seem to be the only restraints on municipal leaders in this controversy, the pro-life community ought to remember that this victory can be traced, ultimately, to the President Donald Trump majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.”
