City Council refuses to regulate crisis pregnancy center advertising

After more than a year of considering ordinances to regulate advertising by crisis pregnancy centers, the Worcester City Council stopped all action with a 7-4 vote Tuesday.
The city has two such centers, Problem Pregnancy of Worcester Inc., on Pleasant Street, and Clearway Clinic on Shrewsbury Street.
Roderick P. Murphy, executive director of Problem Pregnancy, was grateful that their free speech rights were not taken away.  
“Thank God for Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and whoever wrote the Bill of Rights,” Mr. Murphy said. “It’s protecting us because it gives us all the rights every other American has, mostly, in this case, speech. ”
Phone calls to Clearway Clinic were not returned before publication time.
The City Council first took up the issue in July 2022 after Councilor Thu Nyguen requested an ordinance to prohibit what some called “deceptive advertising” by the centers which do not perform or refer for abortions.
Voting to file the ordinances on Tuesday were Mayor Joseph M. Petty; Councilors-at-Large Morris Bergman, Donna Colorio and Kathleen Toomey; District 1 City Councilor Sean Rose; District 2 City Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson and District 4 City Councilor Sarai Rivera. Voting against filing them were Councilors-at-Large Khrystian King and Thu Nguyen; District 3 City Councilor George Russell and District 5 City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj.
To do anything further on the issue would require introducing a new item after 90 days, according to the city clerk’s office.   
City Manager Eric D. Batista and City Solicitor Michael E. Traynor had recommended not passing the ordinances, citing concerns about lawsuits, free speech rights and unequal treatment of different types of places providing pregnancy-related services.