Centro Tepeyak Versus Montgomery County

In December of 2009 I posted on hearings held in Montgomery County as the County Council members prepared to do the bidding of their NARAL funders with the passage of the NARAL-orchestrated legislative initiative to hamper the work of the pro-life pregnancy centers.  In Baltimore and Montgomery County the measure passed, but in both cases courts issued injunctions preventing implementation until further review.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit will be reviewing the matter of Centro Tepeyak versus Montgomery County.  (See the docket here)  ADF attorneys will be presenting arguments in Richmond tomorrow (Thursday Dec 6).  Similar measures passed in other areas (again, orchestrated by NARAL) have been declared unconstitutional.  Please pray for a similar outcome here.

Two Legal Victories - One National, One Local

Both are significant to us, particularly to those who labor in pro-life arenas.  First, I'll relay the national news.

The last nail has been pounded into the coffin of the 28-year-old case known as NOW vs Scheidler.  This case has been to the Supreme Court three times - all three times the rulings have been in Scheidler's favor.  The Thomas More Society has been assisting Scheidler all along and they have a report.  They've also racked up some legal costs during these past two decades.  A few days ago, the Seventh Circuit Court ruled that the plaintiffs must cover the costs that had been awarded to the defendants - a little over $63k.

This one is definitely closer to home, but still has much national impact on the pro-life effort.  In 2009, the Montgomery County Council (many of the members effectively owned by NARAL) passed a NARAL-inspired piece of unconstitutional legislation aimed solely at crippling the efforts of pro-life pregnancy centers.  In December 2009 I spent much time blogging about the hearings.  One of the pregnancy centers, Centro Tepeyak of Silver Spring, took the lead in filing legal challenge.  They were assisted by Alliance Defending Freedom.  As in the Scheidler case above, several court rulings had been decided in favor of the pro-life side.  Finally Montgomery County saw the light, realized it just couldn't win and decided to give up its obviously futile effort.

By the way - in reference to the Montgomery County affair, I remind all Montgomery County citizens that every one of these council members is up for reelection this November.  Since so many of them show a disdain for the Constitution that they promised to uphold, it's time to give them their pink slips next Election Day.

Archdiocese Of Washington Lends Little Support To Grassroots Pro-Life Activists

I have been involved in pro-life efforts for approximately 30 years.  As a Catholic, much of my earlier activism has been within the contexts of parish and diocesan structures and other affiliated organizations.  I was a founding member of our parish pro-life committee.  At the same time, I was also praying along with many other Catholics outside a Gaithersburg abortuary.  Many of us in several parishes shared frustration that the support we received from several parishes was tepid at best.  This included the Archdiocese of Washington.  However, as tepid as that support was, the archdiocese did not try to squelch any actvism on our part, provided that it wasn't carried out as a specifically Catholic endeavor.  McCarrick didn't bother about us, one way or the other.  If others have different experiences, please advise via com boxes.

But that was at the grass roots level.  Cardinal Hickey had created a pro-life office staffed by good pro-lifers.  After he retired and McCarrick took over, I noticed disturbing things.  The parish pro-life groups simply weren't receiving much in the way of leadership from that pro-life office.  The latter's time was being gobbled up by what I can only call busy-work.  Much of it centered around the archdiocesan "youth rally" that they conducted right before the national March for Life.  There were talks, concerts, and a Mass that were all scheduled to end immediately before the march began.  In other words, the archdiocesan Catholics did not participate in Nellie Gray's rally beforehand and thus weren't included in the counts conducted by the Park Police.  That bothered me greatly.  I recall asking one official (don't remember who) why they did that.  I told him quite frankly that we could do with a simple Mass without all that other "dog and pony show" stuff.  He responded (I kid you not), that some of Nellie's speakers weren't suitable for Catholic audiences.  He mentioned one of the speakers as being the now-deceased Jesse Helms.  I was aghast.  From then on I didn't attend those rallies.  Since my parish did, with the buses dropping off at the rallies, I started going separately via Metrorail and made sure that I was at the entire rally conducted by Nellie Gray.

When I saw things going horribly awry within the leadership of the Catholic Church, I started the website and this blog.  I knew they weren't compatable with my membership in the Church-affiliated groups so I resigned my affiliations with the latter.  By that time I had also become involved in sidewalk counseling and protests using the abortion victim pictures.  Both of these activities the archdiocesan pro-life office (under different leadership) were loathe to support.  I began to see the wisdom of conducting pro-life work outside the context and restrictions of parish and diocesan affiliations.  When McCarrick retired and Wuerl came in, things became quite strange.

Several years ago I and other sidewalk counselors came across an announcement from the archdiocesan pro-life office that they were holding sidewalk-counseling training sessions, assisted by the Helphers of God's Precious Infants.  On one hand, I was quite pleased that the archdiocese was finally seeing the wisdom of offering help to women before  they did the deed and slaughtered their babies to their everlasting regret.  On the other hand, I was rather puzzled that they didn't ask those of us who had been in front of mills every week for the past twenty years and who have saved hundreds to attend, let alone offer the benefit of our own experiences.  We were being excluded and, I think, marginalized.  I don't think much ever came of their efforts.  A few counselors who I think were trained by the Helpers still remain, but I believe they are not operating under diocesan direction.

The archdiocese also thumbed their noses at the idea of associating with those who took leadership roles in dealing with Leroy Carhart when he first came to Germantown.  When "Pray For Germantown" held rallies and protests on Wisteria Drive, the archdiocese did not send official representation.  We are grateful for the individual priests who lent their support over those several years, but regret that the archdiocese did not join the other churches and grass-roots prolifers.  I learned why when archdiocesan emails were mistakenly forwarded to me.  They eschewed any affiliation with Troy Newman and Operation Rescue, claiming that OR's "reputation" (whatever that meant) was the reason.  I also know that the archdiocese is very squeemish about the usage of pictures of abortion victims.  To be clear, the archdiocese did conduct their own candlelight vigils, etc  along Wisteria Drive.  Still, their standoffishness was lamentable.  I understand that now that Carhart has moved to Bethesda, the archdiocese still lends no support.

We noticed something else in relation to crisis pregancy centers.  There are a number of them in Montgomery County - some run by Catholics, others by protestants under the Carenet network.  Generally we tried to utilize the Catholic ones when we had the opportunity to take women there, owing to their understanding  of the inherent evils of contraception.  When they weren't available, we would resort to the carenet cpcs, as time was of the essense in securing assistance for the women.

When we started counseling at Spring Street, two Catholic cpcs were nearby.  Centro Tepeyak at the time was located on Apple Avenue, within walking distance of the (now closed) Spring Street Planned Parenthood.  We walked at least two women to that cpc, where they received immediate assistance.  We also took women to Wheaton Birthright, located on Grandview Avenue.

A few years ago, however, very strange decisions were made.  First, Birthright moved away from Wheaton further north into Glenmont.  They moved into an archdiocese-owned building dubbed the McCarrick Center (I pray that they will rename that place, given recent revelations).  A short while later, we learned that Centro Tepeyak also moved there.  In other words, the location of both Catholic centers became less convenient to us.  Moreover, we found that their hours were cut back.  We couldn't depend on them being open when most of the area's abortions occur.

It certainly seemed odd to have two pregnancy centers located in the same building.  That situation didn't last, as Birthright was moved to Olney.  Frankly, I am not aware of any abortuary in Olney that would warrant such a move.  If in fact there is such an abortuary, please advise.  Well, at least the two protestant centers were open and (usually) available.  But they are further away than the other two were.

So there you have it.  In the space of a few years we see:

• the archdiocesan pro-life office cutting loose the individual parish pro-life groups and not dealing with real issues of the day.  Did they ever do anything to prevent the passage of Obamacare, for instance?
• the de facto marginalization of veteran sidewalk counselors during the archdiocesan efforts to institute their own program (that seems to have fizzled)
• the archdiocese not joining with other churches in the efforts against Carhart in Germantown and Bethesda
• coaxing two crisis pregnancy centers away from sidewalk counseling sites 

I had debated over the years whether or not to bring all this in the open.  Given recent revelations over the past few days, I must admit the possibility of a desire to hamstring the local pro-life movement.  I'm sure certain donors would have wished that very much.

Major Victory For Montgomery County Pregnancy Centers!

The Alliance Defense Fund is rendering crucial assistance to pro-life pregnancy centers by arguing for the plaintiffs in Centro Tepeyak v. Montgomery County.  In light of the victory won by Baltimore pregnancy centers, a federal court has ordered that the onorous regulation be put on hold.  Read the ADF press release here.

We too believe that the pregnancy centers will prevail against this ludicrous, NARAL-orchestrated farce that was put in place by pro-abortion advocates simply to ensure that blood money flows into the coffers of abortionists.  Thanks be to God, and let's soldier on!

Note: For some background on this matter, check out this blog's archives from December 1, 2009 onward.

Here are some posts regarding the ruling pertaining to Baltimore City:
http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2011/02/yoo-hoo-montgomery-county-council-wakey.html#more
http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2011/01/baltimore-anti-pregnancy-center-law.html

Montgomery County CPC Rule - Unconstitutional!

Not all court rulings last week were nonsensical!  Last week the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw the Montgomery County cpc "disclaimer" rule into the dung heap where it belongs.

The Montgomery County Council, following the script dictated to them by NARAL, tried to violate the free-speech rights of pro-life volunteers by passing legislation - literally out of the NARAL playbook.  The first hearings were conducted in December 2009.  I reported extensively on them at that time, using many video and audio clips of the same.  Since over half of the council members at that time were NARAL-endorsed, no  one really doubted that the measure would pass.

Centro Tepeyak Pregnancy Center in Silver Spring MD took the lead in taking the thing to court.  Their efforts paid off.  By the way, the same ordinance passed in Baltimore City also went down in flames.

As you read the Post blog piece, note some of the comments.  Even those who consider themselves "pro-choice" understand the draconian nature of what the local legislatures tried to do.  Hopefully they'll think things through some more and will come to realize that the pro-baby-murder tyrannical mindset can't help but manifest itself in other facets of life and human interactions.

Montgomery County CPC Gag Law Killed In Its Entirety

I remember the deliberations over this in 2009 (I blogged on it then).  It was unconstitutional and it was clear that the majority of the Montgomery County Council were simply doing the bidding of their sugar-daddies and money bags.  This move was literally out of a NARAL playbook (and I have a copy of it, too!).

Comes now the news (from LifeNews) that a federal court today put the final kibosh on it.  The ruling notes that the bill was an affront against the First Amendment.

Congratulations and thanks to the Centro Tepeyak Pregnancy Center, along with Alliance Defending Freedom.  They were the lead plaintiff in this case and they - and all of us - prevailed.  Of course this can only have good ramifications for other localities that are fighting this NARAL-spawned poison.