Oregon Pregnancy Centers Victorious Over Worst Bill Yet

I am happy to report that the two companion bills (SB 769 / HB 3425) that were targeting the pregnancy centers in Oregon are pretty much dead as of today. After this week’s hearing on SB 769 and the chair of the committee reported that it is not getting out of committee (yipee).  HB 3425 was scheduled for a hearing this Friday but it was removed from the House health care agenda today. So, as you could imagine Oregon centers are doing the “happy dance” tonight.

SB 769 / HB 3425 were designed to shut down pregnancy centers and were driven by Planned Parenthood of Oregon and NARAL. (sound familiar?) These bills were written very differently than any bill to date.  In fact, I think that these bills are the most dangerous ones ever. This tells me that the abortion advocates are getting better at writing bills targeting pregnancy centers.

For example, pregnancy centers and abortion providers were basically treated the same so that we could not play the “unfair” to one group card. These bills listed the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) as the plaintiff and gave OHA the power to investigate and police the speech of the pregnancy centers. Penalties were substantial fines that no pregnancy center could survive.

Furthermore, the bill denied Oregon physicians the right to voluntarily provide medical services in their community in that it required that all supervising medical directors be employed.  And listen to this. The definitions in these bills were such that it would place staff and volunteers under the subjection of OHA.

On behalf of all of the pregnancy centers in Oregon, thank you for your prayers and thoughts. It has been a hard week, we are all exhausted. But, one week of little sleep and intense white knuckle rides is much better than the two months that we experienced in Washington State – so I am grateful.

Go to www.protectwomenor.com for more information.