Nebraskans Embracing Life launched a petition drive to declare Bellevue, Nebraska a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn,” which would mirror similar efforts in many other municipalities across the country to denounce abortion and defend the unborn.
Dave Zebolsky, a spokesman for the pro-life group, tells AFN it was disappointing that most churches in Bellevue – two out of three, he said – refused to help the pro-lifers circulate the petition in their church.
“So, in a lot of cases,” he says, “we had to collect signatures on the sidewalk.”
Bellevue, a city of 64,000, is located in suburbs south of Omaha and is home to the state’s only abortion clinic.
Approximately 100 volunteers knocked on doors across Bellevue in their failed effort to collect 7,400 signatures for a ballot initiative.
In related pro-life news across the nation, pro-life activists in Danville, Illinois were alarmed to learn an abortionist had purchased a former eye clinic in their city with plans to open an abortion clinic in the city of approximately 30,000.
Blaine Wilhour, a pro-life state representative, tells AFN small-town Danville is a victim of its proximity to Chicago and its liberal influence in the surrounding communities.
“The rest of the state is very conservative. It's very red,” he explains. “So obviously, in the last few years, we have gone over the top with our governor and the legislature making Illinois the abortion mecca of the country.”
Danville is located just six miles from the state line with Indiana, which is why the city is being targeted as an abortion destination.
Danville’s city leaders are considering using zoning laws to keep the abortion clinic from opening.
In another pro-life fight, Kansas legislators approved a bill that protects infants who survive an abortion but the legislation is in trouble thanks to Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat.
Danielle Underwood, of Kansans for Life, tells AFN the bill is simple: An infant who survives an abortion must receive life-saving medical care.
“We want to make sure that children are given every chance to live and thrive,” she says of the legislation, “and this is the way we can do it.”
On the other side, at least one Democrat has openly called for allowing the child to die.
“If the infant is born alive and only has minutes to live,” said Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Democrat representing the Kansas City area, “the mother, the father, the family, have the right to ask for palliative care and embrace the infant until it is no longer breathing.”
Gov. Kelly vetoed a similar bill in 2019, and has hinted she would do the same with this measure, but Underwood is urging the governor to sign the bill.
