There was no proclamation at the March 8 city council meeting honoring abortion providers, but the fact that only one was scheduled in the first place was enough to fill several rows of the hall with city ​​with anti-abortion advocates mobilizing against the overturned proclamation.

While the casual viewer of the March 8 agenda might be taken aback by the presence of abortion advocates at the meeting, the filing originally included a proclamation of March 10 as a “Provider Appreciation Day.” abortion”. Local church groups have been agitated by clergy like Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, despite the proclamation being removed from the agenda at the behest of Mayor Justin Wilson.

“Somebody saw it was on the agenda and spread the word,” said Larry Cirignano, who said he heard about the event from Queen of Apostles Catholic Church. “Thinking we should be honoring people for killing babies…”

Cirignano said local advocates said the closure of some clinics offering abortions in Virginia was encouraging, especially Planned Parenthood in Falls Church, and Cirignano said he hopes the West End facility can be blocked. in the same way by bureaucratic means.

“The Landmark one is going to have to move, so wherever they move it could be blocked,” Cirignano said. “The City of Fairfax decided they needed one more parking space than they had. »

Elsewhere, onerous health inspections have been used as a cudgel to shut down Planned Parenthood clinics. The likelihood of the all-Democratic Alexandria City Council agreeing to this seems slim, but Cirignano argued that anti-abortion sentiment could cross party lines. A Gallup poll indicated that about 8% of Democrats believe abortion should be illegal under all circumstances, while 50% believe abortion should be legal under all circumstances.

Our goal is not just to make it illegal… Our goal is to make it unthinkable.

Wilson said that while he and his City Council colleagues still support the post, he withdrew it with their consent after deciding it was too controversial a topic for the generally innocuous ‘proclamations’ section of a public hearing. . Other proclamations at this meeting, for example, expressed support for Meals on Wheels and recognition of Brain Injury Awareness Month.

“He was one of [abortion] city ​​vendors had approached us because this is a national celebration,” Wilson said. “A colleague of mine had requested that we put him on the docket and I had agreed to do so. On reflection, these proclamations are generally non-controversial, but this one is more controversial. After talking with my colleagues and thinking a bit, it makes sense to remove him from a role.

Wilson expressed regret for including it, but not for the intent behind it.

“On reflection, I shouldn’t have put it as a proclamation,” Wilson said. “It’s the kind of thing you could treat as a resolution or present at an event. It was the judgment and everyone agreed unanimously. The sentiment is to show our support for these healthcare workers who are doing a legal and necessary service to our community in our community. We have two vendors in our town who are doing this work under adverse conditions, and we wanted to show our support for the work they are doing.