What The Hartford Courant Didn't Report

FIC Action’s Jan. 10th e-blast written by our President, Peter Wolfgang:

Here is how our state’s largest newspaper greeted the New Year:

“As other states restrict abortion, Connecticut is poised to make it more accessible,”says the headline. The article reports on how abortion industry lobbyists intend to strengthen our state’s already-extremely pro-abortion laws and “make Connecticut the first state in the nation to regulate faith-based pregnancy centers.”

This is nothing new. FIC Action and our allies have defeated these attacks on Connecticut pregnancy centers for the last four years and we will do our best to defeat them again.

But this part of The Courant’s story deserves special attention:

“NARAL is advocating for a state law modeled on a Hartford ordinance that bans deceptive practices at so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which critics say sometimes pose as medical clinics to lure women and hand out misleading information about abortion. The city council adopted the ordinance last year; it requires faith-based pregnancy centers to disclose whether their staff carry medical licenses, and it prohibits such establishments from engaging in false or deceptive advertising practices.”

Here is what The Hartford Courant and pro-abortion activists are not telling the public:

In the three months since the Hartford anti-pregnancy center ordinance became active, it has had no effect. There is no sign hanging at St. Gerard’s Hartford Women’s Center. And there has been no restriction on St. Gerard’s advertising. 

Here is the key provision of the ordinance:

““Pregnancy service center” does not include or mean any facility or office……….. where a licensed medical provider is present to directly provide or directly supervise the provision of all medical services mentioned in this section at all times during which these services are being provided at the facility, including abortion, emergency contraception, prenatal care, pregnancy diagnosis and testing, obstetric ultrasounds or sonograms.”

The ordinance does not apply to the Women’s Center because they only provide “medical services” one day a week and only when a doctor or Registered Nurses are there. In other words, the Ordinance does not apply to the Women’s Center because the City of Hartford actually wrote the ordinance in a way that specifically excludes the Center.

The whole thing was a ruse. A fake ordinance, as we said all along. 

And yet The Courant and pro-abortion activists would have legislators believe that Hartford has created a model law that can be safely imposed on Connecticut’s pro-life pregnancy centers.

Don’t believe it. Hartford enacted a fake ordinance precisely because they heard pro-life threats of a lawsuit loud and clear and because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in our favor in a similar matter. The state legislature would do well to consider these facts before being taken in by the pro-abortionists’ ruse.

One Republican legislator, Rep. Gail Lavielle (Wilton, Norwalk, Westport) already proposed a bill attacking pregnancy centers on the very first day of the 2019 legislative session.

But another, newly-minted State Senator Rob Sampson (Cheshire, Prospect, Southington, Waterbury, Wolcott) hit back right away against The Hartford Courant’s New Year’s Day pro-abortion front pager.

FIC Action, meanwhile, will continue to work alongside the Connecticut Pregnancy Center Coalition and others in defeating this outrageous pro-abortion attack on the free speech of pro-lifers in Connecticut. Watch for more information on what you can do to help.