The city council of Somerville, Massachusetts, in the United States, has voted to ban pregnancy resource centres (PRCs) because they don’t offer or promote abortion.
Pregnancy resources centres help parents, especially mothers, in crisis pregnancies. Help offered can range from medical consultation, including ultrasounds, to financial help, prenatal care and counselling.
In 2019 alone, PRCs in the United States served nearly 2 million mothers and families.
But on 24 March, the council of Somerville voted to ban PRCs in the city. The measure was co-sponsored by the entire city council, prohibiting “disingenuous” PRCs that do not provide or promote abortion.
Meanwhile, abortion providers are not required to promote alternatives to abortion. Planned Parenthood has since praised the city council’s action, which, the abortion giant said, supports “reproductive rights and reproductive justice”.
One city councillor said she was “very proud” of the ban, asserting “an individual’s right to make reproductive decisions about one’s own body”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “This city council ordinance is a reprehensible measure that, far from helping mothers in need, seeks only to push abortion ideology on already vulnerable women.
“The abortion industry, including Planned Parenthood, is of course delighted that Somerville has voted to stop pregnancy support centres that help women choose life for their babies.
“As we have seen with other anti-mother measures, including buffer zones, abortion apologists only advocate for choice when that choice means choosing to kill unborn babies.
“There is nothing about this obvious double standard and disregard of the bodily autonomy of the unborn that ought to make Somerville city council ‘proud’.”
SPUC runs an Alma Mater Fund that provides grants to pregnant university students who find themselves in a crisis. For more information, and to learn how to apply, please visit our dedicated webpage, or call, text or WhatsApp us at 07849 088 244. You can also email us at info@almamaterfund.org.uk
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