Raleigh city leader to anti-abortion speakers: Let’s chat outside
Saige Martin doesn’t agree with anti-abortion speakers who’ve asked the City Council for the past year to make Raleigh a “sanctuary city for the unborn.”
But after a woman begged the council Tuesday night to “choose life,” Martin, at 29 the youngest person ever elected to the board, asked to be excused to meet with the group outside the meeting doors.
“I have one job,” he told the more than a dozen people gathered around him. “My job is listen to everyone who comes before us.
“I am not here to make any moral judgment on y’all,” he said as the meeting continued without him. “I respect every single person who comes up to speak. I just want to give you all the same information to anyone else who would come before us.”
‘Pro-life’ speakers
Anti-abortion speakers have asked the council to ban abortions and prevent the sale of emergency contraceptives like Plan B. It’s a movement that’s gained some traction in other states like Texas, which has a handful of such “sanctuary cities.” Last year, Yadkin County, N.C., passed a resolution that recognizes “the full humanity of the unborn child,” with some calling it the first county to declare itself a “sanctuary county for the unborn.”
In Raleigh, the anti-abortion speakers have compared the legal medical procedure to slavery and the Holocaust, and brought large signs with bloody images on them. This past summer, a 13-year-old compared abortion to “flogging” black children and was shouted down by audience members. Pro-abortion rights speakers have also started asking the city to help local abortion providers deal with sidewalk protesters.
The city attorney has told the speakers that banning abortion is outside the city’s jurisdiction. It’s something the politically left-leaning City Council wouldn’t likely consider regardless.
On Tuesday, Martin told the anti-abortion speakers they’d have better luck trying to change laws at the N.C. General Assembly and that the city couldn’t do what they wanted.
He compared their concerns to people who want to remove a tree or fix a pothole. If it’s not city-owned property or a city-maintained road, there is little Raleigh can do.
‘A respect thing’
“It is the respect thing,” Martin said in an interview. “I think City Council is different in that we are service orientated here. People come here to get (expletive) done. ... To that end, it is not my job to make a moral decision. My job is to help you figure out how to do it. They can keep coming back, but I wanted to give them my thoughts.”
Martin also wanted to let them know they’d be heard and to move past the political “theater” of being in a council meeting.
“I often wonder how much we are listening,” he said. “Not that we’re not listening, but are we actively listening, absorbing? And then also how much are people listening on the other end or are we in the theater, doing the dance. I wanted to break that barrier and say ‘I am real, I see you.’”
“Issues like this that are so divisive and it doesn’t need to be,” he said. “Sometimes a human connection is important. I may not agree with them, but I can shake your hand and help you get to where you need to be.”
During the most recent election, Martin criticized his predecessor for asking the city to support a medical center, which lists among its partners a group that opposes abortion. The medical center, NeighborHealth Center, rescinded its grant request after the controversy.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 5:23 PM.
