The Pueblo, Colorado, City Council has revoked the invitation for pro-life witnesses to speak at tonight’s city council meeting for what one Councilwoman calls “biased opinions” that would cause a “circus in her chambers.”
This is blatant and egregious viewpoint discrimination. The ACLJ has dispatched a team of lawyers and is preparing to deliver a legal demand letter and present affidavits at tonight’s city council meeting.
Notorious partial-birth abortionist LeRoy Carhart announced earlier this year that he would move his late-term abortion business across state lines from Nebraska to Pueblo, CO. Carhart is infamous for attempting – and failing – to overturn the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban at the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart, a case the ACLJ was actively involved in defeating his efforts.
ACTION ALERT: To urge support for final passage of this abortion ban, Contact the Pueblo City Council.
Recently, an ordinance was proposed – and passed a first reading – banning late-term abortions, which would effectively prevent Carhart from setting up his gruesome business.
A hearing of the City Council was scheduled for tonight and both pro-life and pro-abortion speakers were invited and scheduled to speak. Then, yesterday evening, Councilwomen Sarah Martinez and Heather Graham canceled the pro-life speakers, but specifically still allowed the pro-abortion witnesses’ hour-long presentation to remain on the schedule.
We are representing both an invited speaker, Mark Lee Dickson (a pastor and pro-life expert), and the individuals who organized the other pro-life speakers in this matter.
Councilwoman Regina Maestri told us that Councilwoman Sarah Martinez told her that the pro-life speakers were being banned because the pro-life “speakers would give biased opinions and she didn’t need a circus in her chambers.”
This blatant and egregious unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination flies in the face of the First Amendment and will not stand. One of our senior lawyers has just flown in to Pueblo this afternoon, and will be personally delivering a legal demand letter to the entire City Council, putting them on notice of their violation of the Constitution, demanding that they let the pro-life witnesses’ speak, and advising that “the ACLJ is preparing legal action to rectify the Council’s unconstitutional actions.”
We will keep you updated as this situation rapidly develops.
