The Massachusetts Legislature is considering a proposal to "gag" the centers that help pregnant women and parenting mothers.
With House Bill 337, Sam Whiting of the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) tells AFN the lawmakers intend to eliminate "unfair and deceptive advertising of pregnancy-related resources" by enforcing a $1,000 fine for every violation.
The language, however, only applies to pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs); abortion facilities that deceive women about abortion risks or their unborn baby's development would not be penalized.
"Every once in a while, here and there, there might be a pregnancy center that's a bad apple -- just like you might have a bad apple anywhere in any range of services," Whiting notes. "But pregnancy resource centers at their core are charitable organizations that are there to protect women and save the lives of unborn children, so they follow strict codes of ethics."
He says regressive members of the legislature seem to want to punish the clinics for not providing and/or referring for abortions, and his organization has called this bill is an "underhanded attempt to crack down on Big Abortion's main competitor."
"Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses have lobbied for this bill because PRCs impact their bottom line," LifeNews.com relays.
"This narrative that they're … trying to deceive women into not having an abortion is just false," the MFI staff attorney asserts. "If women ask whether they provide abortions, [these pregnancy centers] always respond truthfully and say, 'No, we don't provide that, but we'd love to talk with you about all the other options.' This really is just kind of a political narrative that the other side is driving to try and shut them down."
Whiting says the abortion supporters in the legislature are guilty of viewpoint discrimination.
