Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Late-Term Abortion Facility Stopped By City Council

I think one's local community is going to be the place where a stand against abortion could make a real difference. We have already seen it here in California with County Supervisors cutting funds to Planned Parenthood. Now a city council in Iowa has blocked the sale of land to a late-term abortion provider. From Life News:
"The Council Bluffs City Council voted unanimously last night to prevent late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart from obtaining a parcel of land on which to build a new abortion facility.

Carhart made national news recently when he promised he would expand his late-term abortion business to Iowa and Maryland and take over operations of another abortion center in Indianapolis, Indiana.

At issue was a city council vote on 24,393 square feet of vacant city ground near the intersection of Avenue G and North 15th Street that Carhart possibly hoped to obtain for his new abortion center.

But, as the Omaha World-Herald reports, council members voted unanimously to sell the parcel of land with the stipulation that an abortion facility not be build on it.

“I think the council is unified on this,” Councilman Matt Schultz said. “We’ll try to do what we can to prevent this type of activity.”

“We do take this seriously,” Schultz told the approximately 300 people who attended the meeting to speak out against Carhart’s coming to town. “Over the five years I’ve been here, we’ve worked hard to make this a positive place to work and live.”

The newspaper indicated Mayor Tom Hanafan said no one had come to the city yet to seek permission to build a new late-term abortion center or buy an existing building to house one.

Steve Brody, the executive director of Dubuque County Right to Life, told LifeNews.com there was an “incredible turnout last night at the Council Bluffs City Council meeting” and he was pleased by the city council’s decision “to prevent a parcel of land from being turned into an abortion clinic.”

“This parcel was rumored to be a location being eyed at by LeRoy Carhart,” he said..."