Fitchburg, Massachusetts Drops Plans to Keep Planned Parenthood Out
Fitchburg, MA (LifeNews.com) -- The Fitchburg City Council has abandoned its formal attempt to keep Planned Parenthood from opening a center in the city. A standing-room-only crowd attended the hearing last week, and even for an hour after the vote, opponents and proponents lined up to offer their views on the plan to open the clinic at 391 Main St. Christine Hanley, Chair of the Fitchburg-Leominster Chapter of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, responded to the vote: "Kudos to members of the Fitchburg-Leominster Chapter of Mass. Citizens for Life and the other pro-life citizens from the area around Fitchburg. Planned Parenthood plans to use a federal grant to open facilities in Fitchburg, Milford, and Marlborough. Last Thursday 80 people protested at the proposed Fitchburg site. On Tuesday, 40 pro-lifers attended the Fitchburg City Council meeting and many of them testified. The Council voted not to act on the resolution which asks Planned Parenthood not to come to Fitchburg." She urges area residents to contact the landlords who own the building: Bruce Richard, Trustee and Christopher Kacandes, Trustee B C Realty Trust, 168 Harris Road., Ashburnham, 01430, or call 781-858-7475
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It may be difficult, despite the sustained and growing public outcry, to prevent the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts from opening a branch on Main Street in Fitchburg, or somewhere else in the city.
But that should not prevent city officials from trying, particularly if the non-profit organization sticks with its plan to open on Main Street, something we have said is a terrible idea for a city trying to lure more upscale businesses and Fitchburg State College students to the downtown.
That's why we were troubled by the City Council's majority decision on Tuesday night to take no action on a plan announced two weeks ago by six city councilors to draft a resolution urging Planned Parenthood to abandon its plan to open on Main Street.
The council apparently did so after receiving a legal opinion from City Solicitor Michael Ciota, who said a resolution may be unconstitutional and could make the city vulnerable to legal recourse.
Ciota said the City Council must protect the Constitution of the United States, which gives women the right to have an abortion.
"I am concerned finally that even if (a resolution) were not to open the door to liability in any immediate sense, the expressions of the individuals in this chamber which form the government of this city can," Ciota said.
We find Ciota's suggestion that city officials could open themselves up to a lawsuit if the City Council passed this resolution laughable at best.
To suggest that Planned Parenthood could successfully sue city officials because the City Council passed what is essentially a non-binding resolution that carries no legal weight -- if that's what Ciota is suggesting -- is absurd.
This is America, and if the City Council wants to pass a resolution saying its doesn't want Planned Parenthood opening up in its city, more power to it.
Credit: Sentinel & Enterprise
Having said that, there's no question city officials will find it difficult to stop Planned Parenthood from opening here if the organization falls within the allowed uses under the city's zoning laws.
But there's also no question that just because Planned Parenthood can legally open on Main Street -- and we urge city officials to reconsider their zoning laws so that in the future nonprofits and social service agencies won't be allowed to open on Main Street without getting a special permit from City Council -- doesn't mean city officials should just lie down and let them without at the very least telling the organization and the city's residents how they feel.
Only Councilors-at-large Rosemary Reynolds, Dean Tran and Marcus DiNatale voted against the motion passed by the City Council to take no action on the plan to draft a resolution against Planned Parenthood, and only Reynolds voted against the measure during the initial vote, and we applaud her for her action.
We were impressed by the compelling testimony of numerous people Tuesday night who urged the City Council not to allow Planned Parenthood to locate in the city, because although the organization's officials say they won't conduct abortions at the Main Street office, they will refer people for abortions.
Joy Contois, a Fitchburg resident, told the City Council that her birth mother considered aborting her more than 60 years ago but changed her mind.
"It was the greatest price of love I could possibly remember. She gave me up for adoption," Contois said.
Likewise, Mark Rollo, a Fitchburg physician, told city councilors not to ignore the elephant in the room, which he said is abortion.
"Their mission is killing," Rollo said Tuesday night.
Rollo went on to slam Planned Parenthood for easing teenagers' fears about engaging in sexual activity. Rollo said fear of pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and parents' anger stops kids from having sex.
"Every barrier (to sexually activity) is knocked down when they walk in that door," Rollo said.
And we were also surprised that Mayor Lisa Wong did not attend the portion of the City Council meeting dealing with Planned Parenthood, and believe that she had a responsibility to tell residents how she felt about the issue. She later told us she'd rather see the agency locate somewhere else in the city.
Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts President Dianne Luby told the City Council Tuesday that the organization wants to come to Fitchburg "to really be a part of the public-health solution in the community."
Luby also cited statistics about teen-pregnancy rates, and said that Fitchburg is one of the 25 cities and towns with the highest teen-pregnancy rates in Massachusetts.
There's no question the city has a high teen-pregnancy rate, but we question whether opening a Planned Parenthood in Fitchburg will really help to solve the problem.
We believe the active involvement of parents in their teenagers' lives, telling them how important it is for them to wait until they are adults before having babies, will have a much greater chance of reducing the teenage pregnancy rate than opening another social-service agency -- particularly one that's in the business of performing abortions -- in Fitchburg.
Credit: Sentinel & Enterprise
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