On December 7, 2016, there was a quiet announcement that few people probably noticed. But it carried some significant news that can help save lives.
On that date, the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles announced that Choose Life Wisconsin Inc. is now an authorized group for the purpose of requesting a specialty license plate.
On February 25 of this year, the Madison city council passed a new ordinance requiring a 160-foot “buffer zone” around any healthcare clinic in the city.
A modified version of the ordinance was passed in March, narrowing the zone to 100 feet from a medical facility’s entrance and 30 feet from its driveway.
This ordinance was proposed primarily in response to the presence of pro-life “sidewalk counselors” who have kept up a regular presence outside the Planned Parenthood Clinic on Madison’s east side for 10 years.
The Madison ordinance could now be in jeopardy after the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on June 26 that struck down buffer zones at abortion clinics. The Supreme Court decision reversed an appellate court decision upholding a 2007 Massachusetts law that made it a crime for anyone other than clinic workers to stand within 35 feet from the entrances of Planned Parenthood clinics in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, Mass.
To the editor:
Personhood is the fundamental civil rights issue of our time. The pro-life movement is founded on the bedrock principle that all human beings, at all stages of development, deserve full protection under the law.
Our nation’s history of civil rights progress has been fueled by this principle. But one injustice remains: the legal discrimination against pre-born babies, who can be freely mutilated and killed throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
The Wisconsin Personhood campaign seeks to pass an amendment to the state constitution legally recognizing that all preborn human beings are “persons” whose unalienable right to life is protected by the state.
|
|
 |
|
The Respect Life Program begins anew each year in the Catholic Church on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October.
During the month of October, I like to devote my “Editor’s View” space to various aspects of respect for life. Something I have always supported are pregnancy care centers, which especially offer help to pregnant women and encourage them to choose life for their unborn babies.
The state Legislature is considering a bill which would provide a new source of funding for these pregnancy care centers: a “Choose Life” license plate, which features a baby’s footprint along with the “Choose Life” message.
Representative Andre Jacque (R-De Pere) and Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) have introduced companion legislation (Assembly 206/Senate Bill 176) to establish the “Choose Life” specialty license plate. The plates would be available for $15 and those who purchase them would also be charged an annual $25 fee.
We all know that firefighters save lives by battling fires in our homes, offices, schools, and even our churches.
There is one retired firefighter in Wisconsin, however, who is saving lives on the streets. He is not putting out fires. Instead, he is a sidewalk counselor in Milwaukee, saving lives outside of an abortion clinic.
