We packed the house at the Greenwood Village City Council meeting on Monday, December 17th. The support of pro-lifers from all over the state was very encouraging and thanks for coming! The city council limited public comments to 15 minutes on each side. The ‘pro’ ordinance side was allowed to speak first. Larry Johnson, one of Bill Hornaday’s neighbors spoke first. Larry has shown the most aggression of anyone thus far during our protests. His family made a sign that they donate to Planned Parenthood. He was extremely troubled about us and was upset with the city council for not kicking us out altogether. He said that their ordinance was like asking the Nazi’s to remove their swastika’s or asking the Ku Klux Klan to remove their hoods. My favorite line from Larry was, “I know these people, and I know that they will be in our neighborhood on Christmas morning!” I shook my head in agreement. We will be there Christmas morning. Bill Hornaday stood up to speak and nothing he said really stood out to me. And then an unnamed woman stood up who was disgusted at our presence in their neighborhood.

It came our time to speak and I began. I let the city council know that we cannot allow anyone to work for Planned Parenthood in tranquility. That includes the abortionist, the facility worker, and yes, the contractors willing to build their death camps. I explained that we are dedicated to protest Bill Hornaday’s neighborhood as long as they kill children in the facility he builds and that the city council would be better off convincing Mr. Hornaday to stop building or deal with us for years and years to come. Bob Enyart spoke after me. He condemned the city council for making it more tolerable for Mr. Hornaday to be complicit in the crimes of Planned Parenthood. He responded to Mr. Johnson, who said, “What could be worse than having these protesters outside on Christmas morning when our kids are opening presents.” Bob said, “What’s worse are the kids who will be killed in Mr. Hornaday’s facility who never even get to celebrate Christmas.” Very powerful!

Nurse Lolita Hanks spoke about how she had an abortion at Planned Parenthood and how devastating that has been to her life. Ed Hanks spoke about the connections between slavery, the holocaust, and abortion. Sidewalk counselor Jo Scott finished the comments by bringing up a young woman who she convinced to change her mind from having an abortion. She also introduced many little kids to the city council by means of pictures, babies lives who were saved by her ability to speak to these women before they went into Planned Parenthood. She explained that Bill Hornaday’s building is being designed to take that away from her.

If you weren’t at the meeting, you missed quite a night. The city council passed the ordinance, which in effect, won’t change anything about our protests. We knew that coming in and used our time to preach to the city council and Mr. Hornaday. He seemed pretty hard about the whole thing. It really shows his dedication to constructing a building that he knows is being designed to rip little babies apart in the womb. If Mr. Hornaday and the city of Greenwood Village put the same effort they are putting into stopping us from protesting into ending abortion, we might have a chance to return legal protection to innocent babies.