UPDATE: San Diego supervisor withdraws plan to close 16 pro-life pregnancy centers
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A San Diego county supervisor has withdrawn her plan to close 16 pro-life pregnancy centers, which she smeared as “fake and fraudulent.”
San Diego County District 3 Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer was introduced at the county board meeting last month, but did not receive enough votes because more opponents than supporters of her plan showed up at the meeting.
Lawson-Remer had rescheduled her plan for the Dec. 5 board meeting after a new abortion advocate was elected to fill a vacancy on the board. However, last Friday she removed it from the meeting agenda.
According to her office, Lawson-Remer received numerous calls from the community and decided to withdraw the proposal to “incorporate community feedback.” Her office would not say whether the proposal would come back at a later date, the California Family Council reported.
Additionally, CBN News discovered that her November 7, 2023 board letter outlining her plan, titled “Advancing Reproductive Rights Education and Pursuing Litigation to Shut Down Fake and Fraudulent Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” was also from the San Diego website County District 3 was removed. The Board of Directors and staff use board letters to establish policies and procedures that are then used to administer the county government. Board letters will be voted on at scheduled board meetings, the website says.
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Pro-life residents spoke against the plan at the November board meeting
As CBN News reported in November, more than 60 people spoke against Lawson-Remer's proposal, with another 975 responding in written comments. At the hearing, no one spoke in support of her, and only 60 people sent comments supporting her idea of closing the women's clinics.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: “In her recommendation, Lawson-Remer had urged her superiors to support an educational campaign and possible legal action to shut down fake and fraudulent crisis pregnancy centers, accusing them of spreading “blatant misinformation,” portrayed as medical advice ', which aims to 'discourage people from terminating their pregnancies'.”
The outlet reported that several people who spoke at the meeting pushed back against the notion that the centers were not qualified health care providers.
Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the California Family Council, also spoke to supervisors and highlighted the professionalism of San Diego County's pregnancy centers, 13 of which are licensed by the California Department of Public Health and two others operated by licensed individual physician practices.
She also noted pregnancy centers' significant contribution to the state, valued at over $14.2 million in free services and support in 2019 alone. “By attacking pregnancy centers, you are only harming the residents of San Diego County who need their services,” Lorey told the board.
According to the California Family Council, Anne O'Connor, JD, vice president of legal affairs for the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), also defended the San Diego pregnancy centers. In a letter to the board, she expressed her opposition to the proposal.
“Supervisor Lawson-Remer's brazenly unconstitutional proposal to attack the good work of legitimate nonprofit organizations is unwarranted,” O'Connor wrote, referring to the Supreme Court case NIFLA v. Becerra, which “defended California pregnancy centers in 2018, by reversing a state law forcing “pregnancy counseling centers to tell clients where they can get a free abortion.”
“Warden Lawson-Remer and her Planned Parenthood affiliates are egregious in their attacks on life-affirming pregnancy centers, most of which are licensed by the CA Department of Public Health as primary care clinics. Lawson-Remer's aggression against these centers is unjustified; “It is not based on facts or actual grievances and is motivated by an extreme political agenda. It only serves to harm the people of San Diego County who need the services of pregnancy centers,” O’Connor continued.
Additionally, San Diego-based constitutional lawyer Dean Broyles responded in a five-page letter condemning Lawson-Remer's plan as a “brazen and foolish attempt to abuse government power.”
Broyles, the president of the National Center for Law and Policy, also warned the supervisor that her proposal was patently unconstitutional and that defending the county would cost millions.
According to The Union-Tribune, Lawson-Remer said at the November meeting that she brought the proposal to the board after hearing from residents who were “unwittingly lured into these clinics that did not actually offer medically recognized care.”
The outlet also reported that the supervisor said that the centers, operating under proper supervision, had nothing to fear.
“Let’s be clear that there are a number of services and a number of crisis centers here in San Diego County,” Lawson-Remer had said. “The purpose of this bill today is simply to target those who operate outside the law, who are not accredited and who do not provide medically certified treatments and services.”
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Source: www2.cbn.com