The Minneapolis City Council approved an ordinance Thursday that local pro-life advocates say will prevent them from reaching out to help pregnant mothers in need.
Hot Air blog reports Ward 7 Council Member Lisa Goodman, a former executive director of the pro-abortion advocacy group NARAL Minnesota, introduced the ordinance to “ensure access to reproductive health care” in the city.
The ordinance prohibits anyone from blocking the entrance or “knowingly physically” disrupting any person’s access to an abortion facility, including the driveway and street entrances, Bring Me The News reports. It includes exceptions for abortion facility employees, law enforcement and emergency responders.
However, Thomas Wilkin, the sidewalk counseling manager for Pro-Life Action Ministries, said the ordinance also prevents sidewalk counselors “from standing on parts of the public sidewalk outside Uptown Planned Parenthood to offer life-saving literature to abortion clients driving in,” according to the blog.
He said they will sue the city if the ordinance goes into effect because it violates pro-life advocates’ First Amendment rights.
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“We believe this proposal is unconstitutional and want to express our opposition as we prepare to challenge it, should it go into effect,” Wilkin said in an email.
Legislation is supposed to be neutral and non-discriminatory, but it’s clear that the city council passed the ordinance to target peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors.
To justify the ordinance, Goodman asserted that abortion is a “right” that the city must protect.
“Abortion rights are not truly a right for all women if there is no access,” she said in a statement “This ordinance helps ensure access to reproductive health care in Minneapolis.”
The Planned Parenthood abortion chain, which runs a large abortion facility in Minneapolis, supported the measure. It claimed an “uptick in protesters has endangered drivers and pedestrians” outside its Uptown abortion facility, according to Bring Me The News.
The abortion industry has been trying to thwart the life-saving work of pro-life sidewalk counselors through similar ordinances all across the world. Some prohibit pro-lifers from even praying within a certain distance of an abortion facility.
Contrary to abortion activists’ claims, pro-life sidewalk counselors are peaceful, law-abiding volunteers who simply pray and reach out with love and compassion to pregnant mothers and fathers in need. They offer information about their unborn baby’s development, abortion risks, local resources and more.
Pro-Life Action Ministries is an interdenominational Christian organization based in St. Paul that is dedicated to saving lives by “praying and offering love and support to abortion-bound mothers” outside abortion facilities in the twin cities.
“We peacefully reach out to women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy with love, truth and support as they enter abortion facilities,” the organization states on its Facebook page. “Tens of thousands of babies are alive today due to God’s grace moving within sidewalk counselors and prayer supporters.”
