California’s Assembly passed a bill this week which, among other things, would force crisis pregnancy centers to refer for abortions.
Sponsors of the bill claim that it is designed to “protect” women from the supposed “misinformation” that crisis pregnancy centers give them. I’ve volunteered in a crisis pregnancy center, and this claim of misinformation is, in my experience, untrue. We did not refer women for abortions. But we also did not give them inaccurate information.
Unlike Planned Parenthood, we did not arrange abortions for pimps who were procuring the abortions for trafficked women, or for minors who were having affairs with grown men, or for women who wanted to abort their baby girls because they wanted a boy, instead. So far as I know, the legislators sponsoring this attack on centers who help pregnant women have not authored legislation dealing with any of these abuses, even though the nation’s number one abortion provider has been taped committing them.
I also doubt that the California Assembly has passed laws requiring abortionists to refer women who are ambiguous about abortion to crisis pregnancy centers.
Crisis pregnancy centers are under attack for one simple reason: They give women a choice about “Choice.” This appears to be the last thing that the purveyors of abortion as the sum total of women’s human rights wants.
From what I’ve read, those who debated against the bill did so on the basis of freedom of speech. I assume that they chose this argument because it is the best one they could mount, given their audience.
I wonder how the backers of this bill would have reacted if someone had tried to amend it to make it a felony to use abortion to practice gendercide, or to make it a felony to provide abortions for sex traffickers and pimps? What would their arguments against this have been?
How would they have debated against an amendment to require abortion providers to refer to crisis pregnancy centers and to give their patients accurate information about the high rates of abortions performed on minorities?
Another good amendment would be one requiring that abortionists give women the opportunity to see ultrasounds of their babies before making a final decision to abort them. There’s no more accurate information for these women to get than to let them see an ultrasound of their babies. They have a right to know what they are doing before they do it, not years later when they can only grieve their decision.
I don’t know the procedures in the California Assembly. For all I know, they do not allow amendments to legislation. But the votes on these amendments would have made a point.
It’s bound to be difficult to be pro life in the California Assembly. From what I read, the opposition to the bill came entirely from Republicans. Kudos to them.
Shame, shame on the Democrats who authored and voted for this bill. They are a smear on our party.
From the Sacramento Bee:
California pregnancy centers that often seek to steer women away from abortion would need to provide information about reproductive services available elsewhere, including abortion, and disclose when they lack medical licenses under a bill the state Assembly passed on Tuesday.
Backed by a coalition that includes NARAL Pro-Choice and Planned Parenthood California, Assembly Bill 775 takes aim at so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that critics say exist largely to persuade women to carry their pregnancies to term, often giving the impression of holding medical credentials that they do not possess. Lawmakers called the bill, which passed 46-25, a simple matter of informing women and protecting them from being misled.
“It’s hard to understand how those who claim to care about women find it so threatening to inform them about accessing affordable health care,” said Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Marina Del Rey, the bill’s author.
Republican lawmakers derided the bill as an unconstitutional attack on private entities, saying it would force crisis pregnancy centers to abandon their core beliefs. The California Catholic Conference also opposes AB 775.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22370520.html#storylink=cpy
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