Josh Hetzler of Founding Freedoms Law Center, the legal division of the Family Foundation of Virginia, says this is unfortunate for several reasons.
"First and foremost is that they're giving away over a million dollars of taxpayer property, for nothing, to a billion-dollar corporation who already has two abortion facilities in the city limits," he notes.
In terms of good governance, and considering that the property could be used for housing or other actual services to the taxpayers, Hetzler says this deal "doesn't make any sense."
The people of Richmond, he adds, do not want another abortion facility, but the city council is determined, for political and ideological reasons, to give this land away for this purpose.
But in following through with this sale, he says the city council is violating its own ordinances in a variety of ways, mainly in that they did not entertain any other bids on the property.
"People have to be given a chance to bid on it," says Hetzler. "Otherwise, the city can just give away taxpayer land for nothing whenever they wanted to, which is apparently what they're doing now."
Now that they have already unanimously decided to accept the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood's $10 bid, he says, "The only thing that can be done is to sue them," and Founding Freedoms Law Center is looking for interested parties who would have standing to do so.
Hetzler hopes a lawsuit is brought quickly, before the abortion giant bulldozes the former school building that sits on the land and builds a brand new, state of the art, $6 million facility in its place.
