By Dave Andrusko, NRLC News and Views
Maybe it's just me, but just because something that is transparently wrong is approved, the fact that everyone already knew that would be the result doesn't make it any the less difficult to swallow. For example, everybody knew the Baltimore City Council was going to pass Bill 09-0406 to harass women helping centers on Monday, but that doesn't make the 12-3 vote any the less outrageous.
Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake carried the Abortion Establishment's water on this one (Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland are reported to be the inspiration), dubbing the bill a "truth in advertising" measure.
Pro-abortion Mayor Sheila Dixon has not indicated her intentions. She can either sign or veto the measure or allow it to become law without her signature. If the bill becomes law, the four pro-life pregnancy centers in the city will be required to post signs in English and Spanish indicating that they do not provide abortion or birth control. Failure to do so with ten days would result in a fine of $150.
Bullies that they are, Rawlings-Blake and her 11 colleagues took on organizations that run on shoe-string budgets and are manned almost entirely by volunteers.
"The passage of this piece of legislation may serve as serious encouragement to those who would like to see our organizations saddled with more laws and restrictions," Carol A. Clews, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Concerns, a nonprofit anti-abortion organization that receives donations from religious groups and has operated in Baltimore for 30 years," according to the Baltimore Sun's Julie Scharper. "The crisis centers are 'very upfront about the services that we provide and the services we don't provide,' Clews said. Most of their clients have already decided to continue their pregnancies but need help with utility bills, job referrals, maternity clothes or prenatal vitamins, she said."
The Baltimore bill is thought to be the first of its kind in the nation. Predictably, the plague threatens to spread. ...
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