NORTHAMPTON — The city may soon try its hand at enacting an ordinance strengthening rights to reproductive and gender-affirming care, even though a similar measure in neighboring Easthampton failed to muster enough votes to override a mayoral veto.

Rachel Maiore, the city councilor for Northampton’s Ward 7, discussed with the city’s Board of Health her plans for Northampton’s version of the ordinance at a virtual board meeting held on July 27. The ordinance looks to protect reproductive rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, and amid the existence of “crisis pregnancy centers” across Massachusetts, which critics say use deceptive practices to dissuade those seeking an abortion from getting one.

“We are in a public health crisis, I think we can all agree on this,” Maiore said at the board meeting. “And with all public health crises, it is the most vulnerable populations with the least resources that suffer the largest negative impacts. It’s really incumbent upon us, on my job as an elected official, and the public health professional’s job to lead here, and center and speak up and represent for those who really are in the most peril.”

Maiore said last week that she is continuing to work on the ordinance with the Board of Health in order to gain their full endorsement, and it’s unclear when the ordinance would appear before the council.

“I keep refining and bringing it to our city solicitor,” Maiore said. “There’s a process I’m trying to go through, precisely because of the pushback we’ve seen in other places.”

In addition to Easthampton, Amherst Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier in April 2022 presented a draft bylaw titled “Concerning Deceptive Advertising Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers.” She withdrew the proposal a short time later.

Northampton’s proposed ordinance, according to Maiore, has two distinct parts. The first part is a “safe access provision” that codifies existing shield laws in the state designed to protect those coming from out of state to seek an abortion and medical providers that serve them.

The second part, known as a “fair access provision,” establishes a standard for advertising by crisis pregnancy centers and would have the city commit to providing public education and information to community members about rights pertaining to reproductive and gender-affirming care.

There are no crisis pregnancy centers currently located in Northampton, although Maiore said that Northampton residents were still susceptible to travel to such a center without realizing the nature of their services.

“It’s really about our people getting on the internet and Googling it,” she said. “But they’re still our residents and they’re still our community, and we need to help them.”

She also said the ordinance would facilitate a complaint process for crisis pregnancy centers through the city’s Department of Health and Human Services, part of the reason she wanted the Board of Health’s endorsement

Maiore was joined at the July 27 meeting by several collaborators who are helping to work to draft the language of the ordinance: Jenifer McKenna, a Leeds resident and co-founder of the California Women’s Law Center; Cheryl Zoll, the former CEO of Tapestry; and Carrie Baker, a lawyer and professor of gender studies at Smith College.

“I’ve been involved with Jenifer and others, tracking what different municipalities across Massachusetts are doing, and the differences in the ordinances,” Baker said during the meeting. “There’s been a lot around crisis pregnancy centers.”

In Easthampton, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle vetoed the ordinance the City Council passed on July 5, saying that it would not strengthen individual rights beyond what already exists in state law and that the ordinance would open the city up to possible legal challenges. It was the first time LaChapelle had used her veto power during her time as mayor. Last week, the council failed to get six votes to override the veto, which killed the ordinance.

At the July 27 Board of Health meeting, McKenna pushed back against the arguments made by LaChapelle, noting that Kim Driscoll, the current lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, had passed a similar ordinance when she was mayor of Salem, and that Driscoll had urged municipalities to pass similar legislation.

“I would say that the public education alone that would happen as a result of the passage of this ordinance is critical,” McKenna said. “Elevating that at a city level is, I think, a critical counter to what the right wing is doing on the local level to sow disinformation and confusion among people seeking both kinds of care.”

Efforts to provide information about crisis pregnancy centers have also been taken up at the state level, with the House of Representatives approving a $1 million spending measure to provide public information last March.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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