{"id":273749,"date":"2022-08-09T08:44:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T13:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=273749"},"modified":"2022-08-09T21:24:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T02:24:54","slug":"allentown-proposal-targets-pregnancy-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/allentown-proposal-targets-pregnancy-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown city proposal targets pregnancy centers while deprioritizing abortion investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A city proposal introduced by abortion enthusiasts on the city council of\u00a0Allentown, Pennsylvania<\/a> is targeting pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life activists while protecting abortion facilities and out-of-state abortion providers. The move mirrors some of the language from the so-called pro-abortion “GRACE Act<\/a>” rapidly spreading across the nation, which seeks to deprioritize abortion investigations by local police.<\/p>\n

In July,\u00a0Columbus, Ohio, approved a\u00a0resolution<\/a>\u00a0to \u201cde-prioritize the enforcement of laws that criminalize access to safe reproductive healthcare procedures and services\u2026.\u201d Multiple cities have already passed<\/a> similar resolutions in cities within states like Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Washington.\u00a0In several cases, the language of these radical proposals includes terms like \u201cpregnancy outcome[s],\u201d which could thwart police investigations on allegations of infanticide and infants who survive abortions.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Report: Most pregnancy centers get no public funding, but save communities tens of millions of dollars<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Live Action News previously<\/a> documented that in addition to deprioritizing police, the Columbus City Council also voted<\/a> to\u00a0award $1 million to pro-abortion organizations, including Planned Parenthood, in order to fund abortion access, along with language targeting pro-life pregnancy centers.<\/p>\n

The most recent example from Allentown centers on four bills\u00a0presented to the Council August 3, 2022<\/a>, which\u00a0were<\/a> then\u00a0referred<\/a> to a special committee. A report published by\u00a0WFMC<\/a>\u00a0said that a vote on the pro-abortion measures is slated to take place in September.<\/p>\n

Targeting pro-life pregnancy centers and activists<\/strong><\/p>\n

On its face, Allentown City Council Bill 61<\/a>\u00a0purports to “prevent[] any statement concerning any pregnancy-related service or the provision of any pregnancy-related service that is deceptive.” The bill defines deceptive advertising as “Disparaging the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation of facts; or Advertising goods or services with intent not to supply reasonably expectable public demand, unless the advertisement discloses a limitation of quantity; or Advertising goods or services with intent not to provide or offer them as advertised.”<\/p>\n

Bill 61 states:<\/p>\n

“No limited services pregnancy center <\/strong>[emphasis added], with the intent to perform a pregnancy-related service, shall make or disseminate before the public, or cause to be made or disseminated before the public, in any newspaper or other publication, through any advertising device, or in any other manner, including, but not limited to, through use of the Internet, any statement concerning any pregnancy-related service or the provision of any pregnancy-related service that is deceptive, whether by statement or omission, and that a limited services pregnancy center knows or reasonably should know to be deceptive.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The bill\u00a0defines “Limited services pregnancy center<\/em>” as “a pregnancy services center that does not directly provide, or provide referrals for, abortions or emergency contraception<\/strong>” (emphasis added). The term agency<\/em> is defined as “a department or entity designated by the Office of the Mayor” which would “provide a complaint form on the official City website” and then “If at any time the Agency determines that a criminal violation may have occurred, the Agency shall refer the matter to the District Attorney and\/or other appropriate entities for criminal investigation.”<\/p>\n

If convicted of violating this Ordinance, the Bill states that such persons “shall be subject to the maximum penalties allowable by law, including, without limitation, penalties prescribed under the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.”<\/p>\n

But, according to the same bill, “Nothing in this Chapter shall deprioritize, interfere with, or impair the enforcement of laws relating to the safety of providers of reproductive health care services or the safety of patients receiving these reproductive health care services.”<\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a0Bill 60<\/a> would target pro-life sidewalk counselors and amend “the City of Allentown Code, Part II, General Legislation, by adding Chapter 474, Regulating Rights and Actions, \u00a7 474-1, Buffer Zones, creating buffer zones at hospital, medical offices or clinics engaged in assisting patients and other persons entering or exiting such facilities.”<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania was home to abortionist Kermit Gosnell<\/a>, where government officials’\u00a0failure to take action<\/a>\u00a0against Gosnells’ “House of Horrors” abortion facility resulted in women being killed and harmed by abortion \u2014 but eventually, Gosnell was arrested<\/a>\u00a0(on charges unrelated to abortion) and charged with murder for violently ending the lives of babies by snipping<\/a> their spines after delivering them alive. Live Action News reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until February 2010 that Gosnell\u2019s crimes were discovered, not because the facility\u00a0was finally inspected, but because police entered his facility\u00a0with a search warrant in an illegal drug selling investigation of one of Gosnell\u2019s staff members.<\/em><\/p>\n

Police \u201ccould not ignore what they saw with their own eyes, smelled with their own noses, and what they heard from interviews with employees,\u201d said the D.A.<\/em><\/p>\n

The officers described the facility\u00a0as smelling like a morgue. Floors were dirty with blood, rooms were cluttered, and there was a chunk of ceiling missing with signs of water damage. A\u00a0cat roamed around. There were\u00a0dirty litter boxes. And there were jars of baby feet, along with 47 frozen babies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Allentown itself has seen dangerous abortion providers like Steven Brigham, whose\u00a0clinic\u00a0<\/a>inspections found<\/u><\/span><\/span>\u00a0serious health and safety violations.<\/p>\n