Dear Friend of the Family,
As we previously reported, members of the Worcester City Council are the latest to propose ordinances that would target the free speech of pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs). These councilors ran into a roadblock when their own city attorney told them that the ordinances they were proposing would be unconstitutional. Time after time, the cities that have passed ordinances targeting PRCs for “deceptive practices” have lost costly legal battles and have had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to PRCs whose rights were violated. Yet, the Worcester councilors remain undeterred. Rather than take the hint from their city attorney, they decided to get a new legal opinion from an “independent” source: the radical pro-abortion group, “The Lawyering Project.”
An attorney from The Lawyering Project stated that she saw “no serious constitutional concerns” with the proposed anti-PRC ordinances, even though they are vague, clearly burden the speech of PRCs, and worst of all, target PRCs because of their pro-life viewpoints.
In response, MFI sent a letter to the City Council rebutting The Lawyering Project’s claims. The letter points out that The Lawyering Project’s opinion relies on outdated and inapplicable cases, ignores the ordinances’ clear viewpoint discrimination, and downplays the success of past challenges to similar ordinances. You can read it below:
This is the third legal letter that MFI has sent to the Worcester City Council to dissuade them from targeting pregnancy resource centers. These centers do amazing charitable work for women and babies in Worcester and do not deserve to be subject to fines just for being pro-life. MFI has made it clear that if these ordinances pass, we won’t hesitate to defend the legal rights of pro-life PRCs in Worcester.
If you live in Worcester, or even if you don’t, we encourage you to make your voice heard on this issue. Tell the City Council that you don’t want PRCs to be targeted in Worcester or anywhere else in Massachusetts. You can find contact information to call or email the city councilors at this link, or you can sign up to testify during the public speaking time of the City Council’s next meeting on October 17th at 6:30 p.m. You can testify in person or virtually. More info, including the Zoom link, is here.
These ordinances may be put to a vote on October 17!
We can defeat these attacks on life with your help. Would you join us in this fight?
For our families,
Sam Whiting, Staff Attorney
