The North Carolina General Assembly has proposed a bill that, if passed, would essentially halt many forms of free speech in public areas under the guise of “economic terrorism.” According to H.B.249, section b1, a person is guilty of “Economic Terrorism,” a subclass of Terrorism, if “the person willfully and maliciously or with reckless disregard commits a criminal offense that impedes or disrupts the regular course of business, the disruption results in damages of more than one thousand dollars” with the intention to either “intimidate the civilian population at large, or an identifiable group of the civilian population,” or “influence, through intimidation, the conduct or activities of the government of the United States, a state, or any unit of local government.”
This bill is popular with the pro-choice camp, especially in Charlotte, NC, where pro-life activists meet face to face with pro-choice opposition daily at the abortion clinic on Latrobe Dr in Charlotte, NC. This clinic is the busiest clinic in North Carolina and commits dozens of abortions six days a week.
The vagueness of this bill would make it possible to use against pro-life activists, who could easily be considered a “disruption” to the abortion clinic’s business on any given day. The clinic is replete with activists from both sides every day that it is open, with a PA system and microphone set up while Christians plead with abortive parents to turn away from murdering their unborn children.
Saturday, February 25, pro-choice city councilwoman Julie Eiselt was spotted at the abortion clinic conversing with police officers and other pro-choice activists. When approached by a pro-life advocate, she yelled at the person and subsequently walked onto the clinic property where pro-life supporters are not allowed and continued her private conversation with police officers. She refused to comment on the purpose and nature of her visit. She then got in her car and sped off.
North Carolina H.B. 249 is sponsored by Republican House Representative from District 108, John A. Torbett. Perhaps Torbett doesn’t understand the implications that this bill would have on free speech. The pro-choice movement has been working for a long time to temper our abilities to preach the gospel and offer a better choice than murder, and this bill could possibly be just the tool they need to advance their agenda. We certainly wouldn’t put it past them to try–they have been known to try anything to stop our message from being proclaimed, including lining the clinic entrance with a clothes line of sheets in an effort to stop abortive parents from seeing or hearing us.
Of course, this is the best that the “intelligent” atheist “free thinkers” of Charlotte can come up with.
Where is the mainstream news on this? Where is the NC Values Coalition? Where is the ERLC? Nobody even knows about this. We encourage you to contact Torbett and encourage him to scrap this bill. His website and contact information can be found at this link: http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=H&nUserID=606
The full text of H.B. 249 can be seen below.
[Contributed by Pulpit & Pen]
