The city council in an Orange County, Calif., city will soon vote on a measure that would turn the enclave into a pro-life “sanctuary.”
Steve Knoblock, a city councilman in San Clemente City, drafted and proposed a resolution that recognizes life begins at conception while it “stands firmly against” Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics in the city of about 65,000. The council will consider the measure at its next scheduled meeting, which is Aug. 16, The Daily Wire reports.
“[T]he City Council of San Clemente, hereby recognizes and declares the full humanity of the preborn child through all stages of life up and until a natural death and declares the City of San Clemente, to be a sanctuary for life where the dignity of every human being will be defended and promoted from life inside the womb through all stages of development in life up and until natural death,” says a draft of the resolution.
Knoblock makes a reference in the two-page resolution to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion throughout the country that is now left up to individual states. He also wrote that it is the council’s duty to “honor and respect God” regarding banning abortion altogether.
“We believe that life is God-ordained and God is the author and finisher of every life. No matter if at the beginning or at the end. As a city council, we will protect and sustain life at every stage. As we ask God to bless America, we first have to honor and respect God,” the resolution says.
The Daily Wire added:
The draft of the resolution has predictably caused outrage among some people in the city. According to the Los Angeles Times, at least 15 people were already slated to speak at the next city council meeting in what is sure to be a contentious debate.
Andrea Schmidt, Planned Parenthood’s public affairs project manager for Orange and San Bernardino counties, told the Times that the resolution itself was “extremely dangerous.” Schmidt also called the pro-life resolution “politically focused and scientifically inaccurate.”
Initially, San Clemente Mayor Gene James came out in favor of the resolution, but he has since changed his mind after seeing a draft.
“It appears to me to be a document that could have been written by a Taliban tribunal, and I’ll say that as a conservative, pro-life Republican,” he stated.
According to reports, the mayor went on to contact the city clerk, city manager, and the city attorney after reading the proposed resolution to see if he could take back his support for the motion and “just kill” the resolution outright. However, he was told that’s not permissible.
As for Knoblock, he isn’t backing down from his resolution as written and sees it as an opportunity to raise more awareness about what abortion really involves.
“There probably isn’t a family in America that hasn’t been impacted by abortion,” Knoblock noted, according to reports. “The [resolution] will get people thinking about what society has been doing for 50 years.”
