R E S T A U R A N T P O L L B A L L O T P . 4 6 - The Austin Chronicle
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R E S T A U R A N T P O L L B A L L O T P . 4 6 - The Austin Chronicle

R E S T A U R A N T P O L L B A L L O T P . 4 6 - The Austin Chronicle R E S T A U R A N T P O L L B A L L O T P . 4 6 - The Austin Chronicle

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12.07.2015 Views

NEWSMaking ‘Pregnancy Centers’ Tell the TruthOn the Austin City Council’s agenda for its April 8 meetingis a proposed ordinance that would require so-called “crisispregnancy centers” to post a sign to notify cleints that theydo not provide or make referrals for either abortion or contraceptiveservices.If the ordinance is enacted, Austin would become the secondcity in the nation to provide the consumer alert for clientsvisiting CPCs – unlicensed centers that provide pregnancytests and pregnancy “counseling” but do not offer anymedical services. “We are simply requiring limited servicepregnancy centers to disclose what is factual and true aboutthe services they offer,” Council Mem ber Bill Spelman, who’ssponsoring the ordinance, said in a press release.The city of Baltimore passed a similar ordinance late lastyear; on March 29, the archdiocese of Baltimore filed a federalsuit against the city, arguing that the ordinance violates thefree speech and religion rights of the city’s CPCs. “Not onlydoes the Ordinance single out pro-life centersfor its requirements under threat ofcriminal penalties, the Ordinance regulatescommunications at the Center that are personal,moral, religious, and political,” readsthe lawsuit.To be clear, the Baltimore ordinance –like that proposed by Spelman (and cosponsoredby Laura Morrison and MikeMartinez) – defines the centers as “limited-servicepregnancy centers” andrequires only that those facilities that donot provide the range of reproductiveBill Spelmanhealth services post a notice to that effect. Indeed, like theproposed Austin ordinance, the Baltimore law does notrequire any CPC to actually provide or make referrals foreither of those services.The Austin ordinance would likely apply to a handful ofCPCs in the city, and its authors say it isn’t meant to hurt16 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E APRIL 9, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o mtheir businesses – rather, it is meant as a “truth-inadvertising”law, to protect women as consumers.“Regard less of how one feels about birth control orsafe, legal abortion, this ordinance is about providingaccurate information,” said Martinez.The city of Austin has a high rate of sexually transmitteddiseases among young people (according to the localPlanned Parent hood, the rate of STDs here in 2009 earnedAustin the dubious distinction of ranking in the top 40 out ofmore than 800 PP facilities nationwide), and statewide, thenumber of teen pregnancies has earned Texas the No. 4 spotCecile Richards (r), president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, joins in the March 25 dedication of afountain in the courtyard of the Robbie and Tom Ausley Clinic and Education Center in South Austin. The fountain wasnamed for Richards’ mother, the late Gov. Ann Richards, a lifelong advocate of Planned Parenthood.Austin could become the second city in the nation to require “crisis pregnancycenters” to post a consumer alert, as proposed in this ordinance.PHOTOS BY JANA BIRCHUMin the nation – and the top spot for the teen birthrate, accordingto the latest trend report released by the Guttmach erInstitute in January. Given the grim statistics, it simply makessense to ensure that women, especially when confronting anunplanned pregnancy, have all the factual information andresources they might need. “This ordinance is targeting someof our most vulnerable consumers,” said Sarah Wheat, vicepresident of community affairs for Planned Parenthood of theTexas Capital Region. “They deserve as much information asthey can get to make informed decisions.” Knowing whatyou’re getting, and what you aren’t, when you go to a CPC isa good thing, she said – “information is good.”It seems likely that the proposal will spark some angryfeedback – CPC supporters, most of them staunch foes ofabortion, have long been loud, both in the city (as at theCentral Health board of directors meeting last year during adebate over whether to approve funding to provide abortioncare to low-income and uninsured women through the county’sMedical Assistance Program) and at the state Capitol(witness the perennial marathon hearings before the HouseState Affairs Committee whenever the topic of abortion arises).While locally those voices have not been successful, overat the Capitol it is an entirely different story.Indeed, in 2005, lawmakers took $5 million that would otherwisego to providers of traditional family-planning servicesfor low-income women to create the new Alternatives toAbortion program as a way to directly fund CPCs and taskthem with “promoting childbirth.” In a series of articles, theChronicle found that the money hasn’t exactly done much toprovide women with any real services – aside from referringthem to other state and federal programs and providing anice annual raise for Vincent Friedewald, the executive directorof the Texas Pregnancy Care Net work, which administersthe state contract. Yet in the 2009 session – a bad budgetyear – lawmakers allocated an additional $3 million overthe biennium for the program, boosting the Alternatives toAbortion budget by a whopping 60%.Still, in spending that money, the state-funded CPCs arenot required to be licensed or state regulated, nor are theyrequired to provide any medical services. The city of Austin’sproposed ordinance is only seeking to make clear what servicesa woman is getting when visiting a CPC: “Women facingan unintended pregnancy need to understand what servicesare available to them,” Morri son said in a press release.“This ordinance helps ensure that.”– Jordan Smith

a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m APRIL 9, 2010 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E 17

a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m APRIL 9, 2010 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E 17

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