Ep. 56 - Abortion Clinic in Danville Illinois - City Council Meeting on April 25th

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I attended my first City of Danville City Council meeting last night. The reason why I attended was because of an Abortion Clinic that is attempting to come to the City of Danville. 

Here is the WAND-TV News on this council meeting.

Here is the FOX Illinois News on this council meeting.

Here is the WCIA-TV News on this council meeting.

Here is the Commercial News on this council meeting. 

Here is the Vermilion County First News on this council meeting.

image via VCF News

I was encouraged by the number of people who spoke for the ordinance and against abortion in this meeting. My friend and co-pastor, Paul Fuller (who also spoke), noted that there were 22 for the ordinance and only 8 against the ordinance. Several other pastors were there, including Pastor Greg Taylor of the Second Church of Christ and Pastor Miles of Crossroads Church.  Especially encouraging were the number of young people with shirts that said, "We are the pro-life generation."

I was quiet throughout the meeting but was extremely tempted to shout out, "Go back to Chicago!" when the ACLU lawyer, from Chicago, got up to talk and threaten litigation against the city if this ordinance passes through the city council. For the most part, everyone was polite and allowed everyone else to talk. The most powerful comments (in my opinion) came near the end when a school bus driver shared her personal testimony as it related to an abortion that she had several years ago.  

The irony was thick in the arguments delivered by the eight who spoke against the ordinance (the pro-choice side). There was the "abortion saves lives" argument.  That one just doesn't make any sense at all. Abortion is literally the aborting of life. I get that there are cases where a pregnancy is going to potentially kill a mother, but when you actually look at the stats, very few abortions are prompted because of this reason. And how is it Ok to kill one person to save another? Are there any other situations where we would give one the "right" to make that choice, just because the child is theirs? Declaring children to be people is a valuable truth that was fought for several decades ago. Should we really go backward and take personhood away from children? 

What was most stunning for me were the faux pas of that other side. It wasn't that long ago that the pro-life side emphasized saying "baby" when the pro-choice side exclusively said "fetus."  That tedious effort must have dwindled, because the arguments from the pro-choice side continuously waffled back and forth from using "fetus" to using "baby."   As the meeting wore on, the efforts continued to dwindle, until eventually, one individual literally said that a mother could kill their baby if they wanted to and it wasn't anyone else's business. Another fumbled over an argument where an abortion was justified because that child... and they said "child" ... might not have a very good life. So... better to be dead than have a bad life?  And how do we know that? Can we just take out anyone who is having a bad life?!? It was even suggested that a person with Down Syndrome would be better off aborted. Insanity! I used to hold to the idea that if we could establish the personhood of the baby in the womb, that would resolve the debate, but after last night, I was convinced that the majority on the other side of this argument would hold to the rights of the mother over and above the rights of the infant. 

(Side note: There was one individual that spoke to this, believing that life did not enter until the first breath as life leaves with the final breath. I would think though with all of the modern technology that we have, that a person's personhood wouldn't rely on their ability or opportunity to breathe on their own.)

I'm not sure of the details, but we've been encouraged to come to the next meeting where the city council will take the actual vote on the ordinance. I think it will be next Tuesday, but I will have to look at the City of Danville website to verify that. Once I get confirmation, I will update this post with the date and time. 

If you are near Danville and invested in this community, I would like to encourage you to be present for this meeting.

As always -- anytime I speak on or write about abortion -- I want to offer up my home to any mother that is contemplating this decision. My wife and I would be more than happy to help you and if you choose to not keep this tiny life, for whatever reason, we would be more than happy to take a child into our home and love him/her as our own if you would be willing to carry the child to term.