City of Brotherly Love?

City councils approve all sorts of silly resolutions honoring people or groups or special weeks and Philadelphia is no exception. Philadelphia is the murder and corruption capital of the world so it makes perfect sense that the City of Brotherly Love adopted a policy position last week calling itself a “Pro-Choice City.”

By a slim 9-8 vote, city council resolved to back legal abortion and proclaims Philadelphia as a “Pro-Choice City” which supports “women’s reproductive rights and freedom” and defends “the right to choose a legal and safe abortion as a final but critical option for women.”

Any other constitutional rights you can think of that should only be used as a “final but critical option.” Speech? Pursuit of Happiness?
The proclamation has no legal impact on abortion but Cardinal Justin Rigali spoke out against it.

“I ask all people of good will to join me in rejecting the divisive and erroneous label that Philadelphia City Council has forced upon the citizens of Philadelphia today,” he said in a statement. “In a city where so many people vigorously defend life at every stage, proclaiming Philadelphia “pro-choice” is inconsistent with reality. It unfairly saddles those who support life at all stages with this shameful label.”

City Council member Blondell Reynolds Brown bravely stood up against the Cardinal (because nobody else is doing that nowadays) and said “At the end of the day, we decide what we want the city to look like and be about. We as Council members will speak to our hearts and our minds and vote accordingly.”

“Our hearts” and “our minds.” That’s pretty ironic considering Dayle Steinberg, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the abortion business helped Brown draft the proclamation.

Could you imagine if the NRA has written legislation that city council adopted calling itself a “pro-gun” city?

With this move Philadelphia joins cities that have made similar proclamations include Berkeley, Santa Cruz and West Hollywood in California. Nice company.

The whole thing is kind of ironic though. Even abortion-rights advocate Councilwoman Marian Tasco voted against the measure by saying, “”I do think we ought to respect all views and not to label the city one way or the other,” said Tasco.

You got to love a City Council which labels the entire city as one uniform thing and then says it’s for “choice.”