At the behest of Planned Parenthood, city officials in Worcester, Massachusetts, the second largest city in New England, decided 15 months ago to battle against the area's two pro-life pregnancy help centers.
"Back in July of 2022, the Worcester City Council had voted 6-5 to authorize the city manager and the city solicitor to draft an ordinance which would compel crisis pregnancy centers to directly provide [abortions] or provide referrals for abortions and emergency contraception," C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts details.
That, of course, would violate the mission of faith-based organizations, so the ordinance's enactment would have forced the closure of the city's two pregnancy care centers, Clearway Clinic and Problem Pregnancy.
But the Deceptive Advertising Ordinance and a Transparency in Advertising Ordinance have been deemed unconstitutional, and Worcester councilors voted on the evening of October 17th to permanently table the two final versions of the measure.
"We can't do anything with the legislature or the congressional delegation; they're just completely in the thrall of Planned Parenthood," Doyle notes. "But you can do something on the local level. By the way, Worcester is a Democrat city, and I think they were all Democrats, but we were still able to win a victory here. We don't have the Planned Parenthood monopoly at the local level."
So, the pregnancy help centers can continue to pursue their mission to save babies, without the interference of city officials.
