Stapleton, NE: Sanctuary For The Unborn
On August 10th, 2021 the village of Stapleton, Nebraska became the third city in Nebraska to pass an ordinance banning abortion within their city limits.
The vote was 3-1. According to the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn website, the Village of Stapleton is the “fifty-first city in the nation” to pass an ordinance outlawing abortion.
The abortion ban defines abortion as, “the act of using or prescribing an instrument, a drug, a medicine, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to cause the death of an unborn child of a woman known to be pregnant.”
Volunteers from the Sanctuary Cities from the Unborn Initiative assisted Stapleton resident Wanda Osnes in filing the necessary paperwork to start the citizen initiative process to pass an ordinance outlawing abortion.
The ban was brought before the Village Board as a result of a citizen initiative petition filed by Stapleton resident Wanda Osnes.
KNOP North Platte quoted Osnes as saying, “I have always believed that life begins at conception, that abortion is wrong, and I don’t want it in my community.”
Among those in attendance at the August 10th meeting was Mark Lee Dickson, the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, who has been involved in assisting fifty cities in the United States abortion within their city limits.
Dickson saw the night as a historic night for the people of Stapleton. "The Village of Stapleton did what no other municipality in Nebraska has done before. The Village of Stapleton became the first municipality in Nebraska to pass a ordinance outlawing abortion which had brought before them by the citizen initiative process.”
The Stapleton Village Board discuss the possibility of passing the Stapleton Ordinance Outlawing Abortion which had been brought before them by the citizen initiative petition process.
According to Dickson, citizens in villages and cities across have been collecting signatures with hopes that their communities would join communities like Hayes Center and Blue Hill in becoming Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.
Villages and cities throughout Nebraska, whose citizens are in the midst of the citizen initiative process, include: Arnold, Bellevue, Brady, Cozad, Curtis, Gothenburg, Hershey, Kearney, Maxwell, Moorefield, Sutherland, and Wallace.
Stapleton’s ban reads, “It shall be unlawful for any person to procure or perform an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy in the Village of Stapleton, Nebraska.”
The ban also makes it against the law to “knowingly aid or abet an abortion that occurs in the Village” and declares abortion-inducing drugs as contraband within the city limits.
The Village Board of Stapleton takes a picture with residents Brad and Wanda Osnes, as well as Mark Lee Dickson with the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, after the historic vote on August 10th, 2022.
The penalty for violating the ordinance is a fine of $500, which is the most that the law of Nebraska allows villages to do for the violation of a village ordinance. The fine, which is immediately enforceable, contains only one exception - it cannot be imposed on the mother of the unborn child which has been aborted.
Stapleton was not the only municipality to discuss the possibility of passing an ordinance outlawing abortion.
Over an hour south of Stapleton, the City Council of Curtis made the decision on Wednesday night to send their ordinance to the ballot for voters to decide at their next general election held on November 8th, 2022.