National Review Online
Wednesday,
October 16, 2024
San
Francisco mayor London Breed became known nationally for reversing her
stance on defunding the police and for her sudden determination to clean up
city squalor and confront the criminally violent. Now, long before that job is
done, she has invented a new crime to prosecute — caring for pregnant women
without referring them to an abortion clinic.
There
are two crisis pregnancy centers in San Francisco. Mayor Breed, doing the
bidding of the abortion lobby, sees them as a threat. All that these centers
typically do is help women work through the practical challenges of having a
baby. They offer counseling and ultrasounds. They offer free diapers and
donated baby items like high chairs and car seats. Most crucially, they offer
loving support and counsel.
In
a bizarre press conference introducing Proposition O to voters, Breed — a
graduate of a private Jesuit school — claimed that pro-life pregnancy centers
tell women that “they will go to hell if they get an abortion.” There is no
evidence that pregnancy centers do this. Even if they did, it would not justify
the measures Breed intends to impose on them. The law would require crisis
pregnancy centers to advertise in their offices that they do not provide
abortions and advertise where in the city women can obtain abortions. The
measure would also seek to raise new funds for abortion providers and to shield
them from any new licensing or medical requirements.
Proposition
O’s proposed regulation of pro-life pregnancy centers mirrors California’s
botched attempt to do so on the state level when it passed the FACT Act. The
Supreme Court rightly struck the legislation down because it violated the
free-speech rights of pro-lifers. With the passage of Proposition O, Breed
would very likely be committing her city to a costly and futile legal protest
against the existence of people who don’t agree that abortion is the best thing
that our society can offer to a woman facing a difficult pregnancy.
Whatever
their feelings on legal abortion, San Franciscans should reject Proposition O
as rank misgovernance. It unjustly tyrannizes people who are generously
providing free services to the community out of their idealism. Being pro-life
is not a crime, not even in San Francisco.
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