By Wesley J. Smith

Editor’s note. This appeared today on Wesley’s great blog at http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/10/29/the-pro-abortion-attack-against-anti-abortion-counseling-centers/

Back in the 1980s when I was still young, I was the fourth talk show host on the three talk show station, KGIL Radio in LA–meaning, I was the regular fill-in host (I sure loved that gig!). The star of the station in the evening drive time slot was a strong feminist and very pro choice advocate who often did programs on abortion. One day when I was substituting for her, I decided to do a program on the choice of adoption, which I thought received inadequate press. I had an adoption lawyer on and, as I recall more than twenty years later, the head of a private adoption agency.

Well, you would have thought I wanted to take away women’s suffrage! The anger that I even brought adoption up–I didn’t discuss abortion at all–not only permeated the hour, but complaints made to the station off air. I was so stunned, I remarked at the end of the hour that I had always thought pro choice meant exactly that. But, I said, I was beginning to think it might be more accurately described as pro abortion. (Yes, there was h--l to pay for that remark.)

I thought of that experience when I learned that New York City may pass laws intended to handcuff crisis pregnancy counseling centers run by pro life groups that seek to dissuade women from terminating their pregnancies. From the story [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/ny-city-targets-pregnancy-centers-as-part-of-nationwide-strategy]

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Councilmember Jessica Lappin, primary sponsor of the bill introduced Oct. 12, said crisis pregnancy centers are “anti-choice centers masquerading as health clinics.” The Manhattan Democrat charges that the centers are not licensed medical facilities and generally do not have a licensed medical staff on site.

“They have staff or volunteers who have an agenda that they are trying to push,” she said. Lappin’s bill would require centers to disclose whether they provide abortions, contraception or referrals for these procedures and services. Centers that do not offer such services or have licensed medical personnel on site would be required to post that information at their facilities’ entrances as well as in waiting rooms and in advertisements. The new ordinance would impose fines ranging from $250 to $2,500 for violations. Lappin charged that many crisis pregnancy centers are “set up purposely across the street from Planned Parenthood or in the same building as those clinics to try and confuse women and draw them in.”

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Well, so much for free speech.

That aside, I don’t understand the hostility. These centers try to save lives. They not only counsel women to choose to give birth, but they also help women deal with issues both before and after birth. There are literally tens of thousands of people with us today who might well not exist but for these counseling centers. And, it all happens in a milieu of full abortion legality.

Apparently the very presence of people who oppose abortion is enough to give some abortion rights activists the hives. Pro life speech is attacked like no other speech in America. And that’s why I often recall that old radio show I did about adoption on KGIL.