The city council in one Orange County, California, town will consider a resolution in the coming weeks that would ban abortions and make the community a “sanctuary for life.”
San Clemente City Councilman Steve Knoblock drafted and proposed the resolution that recognizes life beginning at conception and “stands firmly against” Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics having a presence in the city of nearly 65,000 people. The council is set to consider the resolution at its next meeting on August 16.
“[T]he City Council of San Clemente, hereby recognizes and declares the full humanity of the preborn child through all states 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,” a draft of the resolution states.
In the two-page resolution, Knoblock references the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, and writes that it is the council’s duty to “honor and respect God” in regards to banning abortion.
“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 reads.
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.”
San Clemente Mayor Gene James, who previously seconded the motion to draft the resolution, came out in opposition after reading it. “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,” James said.
The mayor reportedly contacted the city clerk, city manager, and city attorney after reading the resolution and asked if he could take back his seconding the motion and “just kill” the resolution, but he was told that was not possible.
As for the resolution’s author, this stands as an opportunity to raise awareness to the reality of abortion. “There probably isn’t a family in America that hasn’t been impacted by abortion,” Knoblock said. “The [resolution] will get people thinking about what society has been doing for 50 years.”