Today the citizen initiative petition to see Bellevue, Nebraska (pop. 60,527) to outlaw abortion was filed with the city clerk. A total of 521 petition packets were turned into the city clerk, containing well over 7,000 signatures.
The collection of these signatures was not without difficulty. Some have been intimidated to not sign the petition or take part in the collection of signatures out of fear of having their school or church shot up by a terrorist group known as Jane’s Revenge. In December a note left by Jane’s Revenge was left on the door of a student center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. That letter read, in part, “If our right to abortion in Bellevue is taken away due to the attempt to pass an abortion ban and it gets passed we will shoot up your [student] center.” A similar letter was left at a church in west Omaha with the same threat of violence. In addition to this, circulators of the petition in Bellevue have reported individuals defacing or ripping up their petitions - making all of the signatures collected on those petitions unsubmittable. Another circulator reported an incident where he was told by an angry Bellevue resident not to collect signatures in his neighborhood again and that if he was seen collecting signatures in the neighborhood again he would be shot.
Many churches, knowing that abortion hurts women and ends the lives of their children, were extremely supportive of the effort to end abortion in Bellevue - where late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has been hurting women and ending the lives of their children for several decades.
Of course there were some churches that chose not to get involved, and a few even ran petition circulators away from their churches. Some leaders in these churches refused to get involved out of fear of offending their congregation, while other leaders admitted that they did not want to do anything which might negatively impact their tithes and offerings. Despite all of this, a significant number of signatures were collected and turned into the City of Bellevue from Bellevue residents seeking to do their part to love their neighbor - both born and unborn.
Throughout America the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative (www.sanctuarycitiesfortheunborn.com) has seen a total of 65 cities pass ordinances which have kept abortion out of their city limits. The largest of these cities was the City of Lubbock, Texas (pop. 264,000) which saw Planned Parenthood stop performing abortions as a result of the ordinance which their city passed. The Lubbock victory gives much hope to the city of Bellevue. Just as it was possible to end abortion in Lubbock, Texas, it is possible to end abortion in Bellevue, Nebraska.
While we will have to wait and see what will come next from the filing of this petition, one thing is certain: there are many residents in the City of Bellevue who want to see abortion outlawed in Nebraska’s oldest city. Regardless of the outcome of the filing of this petition, Nebraskans Embracing Life, Life Runners, Right To Life of East Texas, Students for Life of America, and other pro-life individuals, churches, and organizations which have been involved in the collection of these signatures and stand committed to seeing the end of abortion in Bellevue, Nebraska.