SALEM — A new proposal from the mayor’s office would help shield those traveling to the area for reproductive health care like abortions and gender-affirming services from prosecutorial efforts in their home states where it may be illegal now.
This measure is similar to Salem’s “Sanctuary for Peace” ordinance of 2017 that formalized a commitment to protect undocumented residents into city law. This ordinance, going before the City Council at its regular meeting Thursday night, says it is to “ensure the city of Salem protects all individuals’ access to legally protected health care services.”
The proposal serves as a “value statement” establishing Salem’s general stance on access to both reproductive and gender-affirming health care, according to Mayor Kim Driscoll. This covers services tied to abortions and the full gamut of medical and psychological services for supporting and affirming a person’s gender identity.
“The new state laws that are in Massachusetts, which protect anyone seeking abortion care from prosecution in other states and jurisdictions where it wouldn’t be legal… We want to make sure we’re aligned with that law and don’t have anyone — a city employee, contractor or recipient (of city funds) aiding in the prosecution of individuals seeking individual care from other states,” Driscoll said. “Whether it’s information we may have in databases, assistance with another jurisdiction… we don’t want our municipal records or personnel being used to help assist in any of those.”
According to the proposal:
- Information tied to such services will remain confidential and shielded from records requests
- No city employee may share information, and no city resources should be spent, on efforts to prohibit, criminalize, or otherwise interfere with the delivery of such services
- No city employees or dollars will be put toward “abusive litigation as defined in this article”
- Salem police won’t hold anyone associated with the delivery of such services (i.e. someone seeking or providing them)
- Salem police won’t remand, transfer or extradite anyone already in custody if sought for the reasons above
On enforcement of the ordinance:
- Any city employee violating the policy is subject to discipline and fines at $50 for the first violation, $150 for the second and $300 for the third and beyond
- Any city contractor is subject to review and possible termination of the contract, and fines outlined above
- Any recipient of city money must return all funds paid in the past 12 months, is blocked from receiving more for 12 months, and is then be subject to fines
It’s unclear if there are any active service providers for abortions and gender-affirming health care services in Salem. In that vein, it echoes the ethos of the “Sanctuary for Peace” ordinance that rocked city politics in 2017. That ordinance, which turned into a ballot vote that ultimately saw the measure prevail, took steps to protect undocumented residents from targeting by outside jurisdictions. This played out in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency with a surge in threats and rhetoric of targeting undocumented immigrants and deporting them.
“If we’re going to draw an analogy to that, there was a lot of immigrant fear at the time. That law was as much for our undocumented residents that live here as ensuring our personnel and contractors were using consistent behavior,” Driscoll said. “This is obviously building off of that by recognizing that we don’t want anyone using our contractors or information from our contractors to prosecute or locate the whereabouts of someone who may be out of state.”
Then, Driscoll pointed to a bill just filed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina.
“(Graham) just suggested we have a federal ban that would pre-empt state statutes,” she said. “The stakes are high, and anything we can do locally and as a Commonwealth, to ensure abortion and reproductive health care and gender-affirming health care are available and our information isn’t being used to prosecute anyone, is really critical.”
The issue is due to go before the City Council Thursday night, Sept. 15. The meeting is held in-person in the council chambers at City Hall, 93 Washington St., and remotely on Zoom (Webinar ID “881 4584 8202” and password 900131).
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.
