I am, frankly, mystified sometimes by how much the abortion crowd hates Pregnancy Help Centers. Anything—and I do mean anything—that redounds to their benefit is cause for hysterical fits of pro-abortion outrage, even if it only means not requiring them to perform abortions.
And that for sure includes proactive attempts to thwart future attacks. Clair McFarland writes
A Wyoming legislative committee on Thursday [October 16] advanced a bill that, if it becomes law, would safeguard pregnancy centers from being forced to offer abortions or otherwise abridge their mission by state or local governments.
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The Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee on Thursday advanced the “Wyoming Pregnancy Center Autonomy and Rights of Expression” or Care Act, to the upcoming legislative session by a vote of 12-2.
Excuse me. Isn’t that why PHCs exist? To give pregnant women an alternative to abortion and to help them going forward?!
Valerie Berry, executive director of LifeChoice Pregnancy Care Center in Cheyenne, “countered the claim that centers do not have adequate medical personnel,” according to Tom Campisi. “Berry told Jackson Hole News and Guide that her clinic operates under a state medical license, with a licensed medical director, a family practitioner, and registered nurses on staff. LifeChoice is among Care Net’s network of 1,200 pregnancy centers across the nation”.
Those remarks “were pushback against earlier testimony by Britt Borrell, executive director of abortion-access advocacy group WYO United,” McFarland reported. To give you a glimpse of his mindset, McFarland reported
Borrell, with others, cast pregnancy centers as seedy, unlicensed places.
An added insult to the abortion crowd is that the legislation provides that “officials would not be allowed to interfere with the center’s staffing or hiring decisions.”
In an odd paragraph in a hostile ABC News story, Mary Kekatos wrote
A center’s stance on abortion would also not prohibit it from providing resources to pregnant people such as diapers, formula, baby clothes, baby furniture and other items, under the law.
Denise Burke, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, testified at the hearing. She said
“ This bill prevents them from being singled out for this censorship or discriminatory treatment simply because of their pro-life ethic and practices. It does not, as some opponents falsely claim, make centers and their volunteers or employees completely immune from oversight.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
