Baltimore City Council targets pro-life pregnancy centers

By George P. Matysek Jr.

gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and 10 members of the council are sponsoring a bill that Catholic leaders believe harasses pro-life pregnancy support centers.

City Council Bill 09-0406, “Limited-Service Pregnancy Centers –Disclaimers,” would require pregnancy support centers to post a disclaimer noting that they do not provide abortion or contraceptive services. Centers that do not comply would be fined $500 per day.

In an Oct. 16 letter to Rawlings-Blake, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said the bill targets non-profit organizations whose mission is to help women carry pregnancies to term. He said it is “well-known” that pregnancy support centers are exclusively focused on assisting women in their choice for childbirth, and do not provide abortions or contraception.

“To fine a center $500 for not posting a sign that states as much is nothing short of harassment,” Archbishop O’Brien said, “especially when nothing in a pregnancy support center’s yellow page advertisements or Web pages would lead a woman to believe these centers provide abortions or abortion-related services.”

Ryan O’Doherty, Rawlings-Blake’s director of policy and communications, said the city council president was unavailable for an interview with The Catholic Review. He provided a copy of Rawlings-Blake’s Oct. 16 letter responding to the archbishop.

“I believe this measure is needed to secure women’s access to accurate and safe medical information,” Rawlings-Blake wrote, adding that “simple compliance” with the ordinance ensures no penalties or fines.

“Of course, I support efforts by nonprofit organizations to assist future mothers,” she said. “This ordinance does nothing to hamper those efforts.”

In his letter, however, Archbishop O’Brien said the legislation unfairly singles out pro-life centers.

“The bill does not on the other hand seek to fine abortion clinics for not posting a list of services they do not provide (e.g., parenting classes, maternity and infant clothes, formula),” he said.

The archbishop said the Archdiocese of Baltimore provides $100,000 annually to pregnancy resource centers “because we believe pregnant women seeking the assistance they provide should get it, and because we feel the help they provide these women will lead to safer pregnancies and healthier babies. This legislation threatens both of these goals.”

The Baltimore bill is similar to one that was promoted by Planned Parenthood in the 2008 session of the Maryland General Assembly. That bill, which never made it out of committee, would have required crisis pregnancy centers to state that they are not required to give “factual information.”

Nancy Paltell, associate director for the respect life office of the Maryland Catholic Conference, said Planned Parenthood is also behind the Baltimore effort. She believes the bill is a stepping stone to passing even more onerous measures against crisis pregnancy centers.

“We are providing community services that the city doesn’t provide and now they’re going to harass us for it,” she said. “We’re saving the city money, but does the city give one dime to these pregnancy centers? No.”

Paltell noted that pregnancy resource centers are regulated by all the laws which govern charities, including anti-fraud measures. Paltell and Archbishop O’Brien said local government agencies, churches and community organizations refer women to the centers.

“If pregnancy resource centers were not legitimate, caring non-profit organizations that provide emotional, material and practical assistance to pregnant and parenting women, it’s unlikely that any of these entities would refer clients to them,” Archbishop O’Brien wrote.

Carol A. Clews, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Concerns, said she was also troubled by the bill.

“I find it very disturbing that the representatives of the people we serve here in Baltimore are actually considering a bill that will do absolutely nothing for their constituency,” she said, “ and seems to be designed to harass the very charitable organizations that were created to help the women and babies in the districts they serve. ”

The Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops in Annapolis, is encouraging Catholics who live in the city to contact their council members and oppose the bill. Information about the bill was sent to city parishes to be published in bulletins.

To contact your council member, Click here.

The following City Council members sponsored Bill 09-0406:

President Rawlings-Blake, Mary Pat Clarke, Sharon Green Middleton, Nicholas C. D’Adamo, William H. Cole, IV, Bill Henry, Rochelle ‘Rikki’ Spector, Belinda K. Conaway, Robert W. Curran, Warren Branch, Helen L. Holton.

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