(ABOVE) Aldermen Ethan Burt (top) and Tricia Teague (3rd from top) discuss legal ramifications of a possible City of Danville resolution designed to prevent abortions.
An overflowing crowd and substantial out of town visitors are expected for Tuesday (May 2nd) evening’s Danville City Council meeting; where the agenda includes a resolution concerning abortions that was forwarded last week by the City Council Public Services Committee.
The ordinance is designed to prevent a clinic planning to come to the old Dillman Eye Care at 600 North Logan from offering abortions. Much of the ordinance involves prohibiting the reception, by mail, of “any article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing an abortion.”
The ordinance was forwarded by the committee last week 3-1, with two committee members absent and one abstaining. There was discussion prior to the vote between Aldermen Ethan Burt (who voted for the resolution) and Tricia Teague (who voted against it) about whether it was worth passing the resolution; due to the subsequent lawsuits the city would likely face, particularly with abortion being legal in Illinois.
(1st Picture) Protest across from old Dillman Eye Care on March 27th; (3rd Picture) Crowd at April 25th Danville City Council Public Services Committee meeting.
Former Danville Alderwoman Brenda Brown stated to the Council last Tuesday, as well as to Neuhoff Media later in the week; that she is very much against the procedure of abortion. But she is also against this resolution because she sees it costing the city a lot of money in legal fees, and therefore erasing much of the financial progress made by the Council in recent years.
AUDIO: I’m pleading with this council to not pass this ordinance. I just plead and urge them to take heed, and I don’t believe the tax payers want to take this on. It’s not favorable for Danville at this time. And I believe that we would be doing ourselves an injustice, as a Council and for the taxpayers of the city of Danville, Illinois.
(1st Picture) Former Danville Alderwoman states her positions both against abortion and against the proposed resolution during April 25th Public Services Committee meeting. (3rd Picture) Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr and Danville City Council.
Meanwhile, Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr; very much against the clinic providing abortions; confirmed after last week’s meeting that the mayor’s office and city aldermen have been cautioned by the ACLU that this move would be in violation of state law. But the mayor also stated last week that the city has been promised help with subsequent legal battles the city would have, free of charge, by Jonathan Mitchell, who once worked as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. And also, Mark Lee Dickson from Right to Life East Texas, who participated in the protest across from the 600 North Logan location on March 27th, says he has guided resolutions in other states through subsequent legal battles. Dickson says he’s looking forward to seeing how the Council vote goes Tuesday evening.
AUDIO: We’re going to see where each one of those members stands. This is an ordinance that we know has survived in other places. We saw, in Lubbock, a similar ordinance was passed, with a Planned Parenthood in operation, and it stopped the abortion industry there. We are confident that these efforts will work, if this ordinance is passed by the Danville City Council.
Tuesday evening’s meeting in the Danville City Council Chambers begins at 6 PM. A second meeting is scheduled for right afterwards where the new City Council, welcoming newly elected Aldermen Jon Cooper and Ed Butler, will be sworn in.
