Since 2015, the city of Boston has had a paid family leave ordinance that allows parents to take up to 12 weeks of paid time after the birth, adoption, or stillbirth of a child. Now, Michelle Wu, a Democratic city council member who is running to become mayor of Boston, wants to add abortion to that ordinance, thereby allowing 12 weeks of paid leave for women who choose to terminate their pregnancy.
Coming alongside Wu was one of her fellow council members, who contends that adding abortion to the current city ordinance "makes us more equitable [and] makes us stronger as a city."
Bill Cotter of Operation Rescue Boston tells AFN that people need to understand the moral climate of the town.
"I think abortion is being advanced as something that's desirable and ordinary and good and nothing to be alarmed about," he offers. "And anybody who is alarmed [about abortion] is [being portrayed as] somehow dysfunctional or even mentally ill, deplorable, etcetera."
Cotter contends that women having abortions would need 12 weeks of paid leave only if abortion advocates concede that women are sometimes seriously injured in abortions and experience long-term psychological problems.
"I think it's another entitlement program," he continues, "and perhaps it's a way of forcing the taxpayers to do homage to the abortion industry to sort of confer on them a merit badge or [indicate] that they are providing a service instead of something disordered and evil."
AFN asked if there were any pro-life candidates running for mayor. "If one were pro-life and running for mayor and were to make an issue of that, then I don't think they would have much of a chance of getting elected," Cotter responds.
Wu's campaign website promises that her policy platform will center on "the pursuit of racial, economic, and climate justice." The mother of two, Wu worked for Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2012 presidential campaign.
