The tone of Thursday’s public hearing was set moments after it began — when, at the conclusion of the Pledge of Allegiance, one audience member shouted “born and unborn” after the phrase “liberty and justice for all.”
The energy grew throughout a five-hour Lynchburg City Council meeting that saw about 70 speakers weigh in on the city’s decision to use zoning tools to restrict where abortion clinics can operate. Attendees sat shoulder-to-shoulder in packed pews of city hall and lined the walls once seats were filled. Applause, cheers and interjections rang just as loud at 11 p.m., when the meeting ended in a 4-2 vote to pass the zoning ordinance, as they did when the first speaker took the stand.
“Normally, we do not allow clapping, but tonight I’m going to make an exception,” Mayor Larry Taylor said minutes into the public hearing. The audience’s support of the city’s stance couldn’t be quieted.
Lynchburg’s Thursday scene comes against the backdrop of an evolving movement for Virginia localities to regulate abortion access by pulling the levers of local law as the state moves one step closer to enshrining abortion access in its constitution and becomes increasingly known as a haven for reproductive rights in the South.
Abortion clinics, which were previously allowed by right in six zoning districts in the city, must now receive conditional-use permits in limited pockets of three zoning districts that meet extensive standards.
There are currently no abortion clinics in Lynchburg and none proposed. The ordinance applies to new clinics that may consider locations in Lynchburg in the future.
Who spoke at the public hearing, and what did they say?
Of those who spoke in favor of the abortion zoning restrictions, a cohort of about 30 Gen Z attendees, many of whom expressed their affiliation with Liberty University and its student groups, caught council members’ attention.
“Council, I submit to you: This is your future you’re looking at. It’s us,” said Shannon Morlock, who represented the Virginia Gen Z Coalition of Turning Point Action, a local branch of a national organization founded in 2019 by Charlie Kirk to support conservative leaders and voters.
The Gen Z speakers were joined in the packed council chambers by Lynchburg residents; neighbors from nearby counties; Rep. John McGuire, R-Goochland County; and Lynchburg Republican City Committee Chair Veronica Bratton.
Their speeches varied in focus but returned to common themes such as the importance of protecting life, the urgent need to preserve Lynchburg’s community values and the validity of zoning as an avenue to do so. Many referenced Bible verses and led attendees in prayer, with one speaker urging the council to remember that “the government is a servant of God.” Some condemned abortions as a “sacrament of Satan” and “murder masquerading as health care” and abortion clinics as “slaughterhouses.”
Michael Morisi, vice president of the Family Foundation, was the first to speak, and he defended the ordinance’s legality. The Richmond-based organization, which has supported similar abortion regulation efforts across the state, helped council member Marty Misjuns draft the ordinance.
“It simply places reasonable limits on where these facilities can operate, away from schools, away from churches and public parks. In other words, it asks us to preserve the harmony and the character of our neighborhoods, and I think that matters because zoning exists for this very reason,” he said.
In all, about 85% of Thursday’s speakers stood in favor of the ordinance.
Of the 350 voicemails about the ordinance that the city received in advance of the public hearing, about 98% were in favor. The voicemails had a combined run time of more than four hours, said Clerk of Council Alicia Finney. The council adopted a special rule to hear Finney’s report on the voicemails in lieu of listening to them at the public hearing.
In comparison, about 63% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to a 2025 report by the Pew Research Center. Virginia is one of 34 states in which more people say abortion should be legal than say it should be illegal.
Lynchburg’s outpouring of support for restricting access to abortion makes it a “diamond in the rough,” said Forest resident and Lynchburg pastor Lon Thompson.
“I want to keep it that way,” said Misjuns, who said Thompson’s observation was one of his favorites of the night. Misjuns introduced the ordinance in October and has advocated for it since.
Thursday’s public hearing was not the largest in recent Lynchburg memory. That title goes to a 2020 public hearing to consider making the city a Second Amendment sanctuary — a meeting which spanned about six hours and had more than 1,000 attendees.
Sterling Wilder, the lone Democrat on the city council, said he appreciates the passion that residents brought to city hall on Thursday night. But he expressed his disappointment that such passion is only reserved for certain hot-button national issues and is not extended to other topics that affect Lynchburg’s citizens.
“Where is the outcry, the outpouring of all the so-called Christians?” Wilder asked, when neighbors don’t have access to crucial resources such as health care or when local lives are lost to gun violence.
The 10 attendees who spoke in opposition to the ordinance agreed with Wilder.
The city has high poverty rates, insufficient affordable housing and poor performance in its schools, said Lynchburg resident Jeff Smith. “And yet here we are tonight focusing on a divisive issue — that doesn’t exist, for which there are no plans [in Lynchburg] — rather than focusing on solving real problems. This has to stop,” he said.
Others argued for the importance of protecting women’s right to health care, the need to separate church and state in local politics, and the legal and ethical dangers of creating targeted zoning rules.
“This is not neutral zoning policy,” said Lynchburg resident Jen Staton. “This is zoning being used as a tool to impose personal beliefs on an entire city. When zoning shifts from land use to ideology enforcement, that should concern everyone, regardless of your politics or your standing and beliefs on women’s reproductive rights.”
What does the ordinance do?
The zoning ordinance introduces a new definition for abortion clinics that separates them from other medical facilities. Under the new definition, clinics that provide abortions are no longer permitted anywhere by right, as they were previously.
Instead, future abortion clinics must receive a conditional-use permit from the council. Those permits are available in one institutional district, one community business district and one general business district, as long as specific standards are met. Those standards prevent clinics that offer abortions from operating within 1,000 feet of eight kinds of zoned districts — including all four of the city’s types of residential districts — or within 1,000 feet of any place of worship, school, public park and various other community hubs.
According to a map included in the agenda packet, the stretch between Candlers Mountain Road and Odd Fellows Road is one of a handful of areas that meet all the zoning requirements of the ordinance.
Lynchburg joins a growing list of other Virginia localities — most recently, nearby Bedford County and the town of Vinton — that have passed similar ordinances and resolutions to restrict abortion access since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal protection of it.
It’s a proactive stance that’s urgent given the climate in Virginia’s capital, Misjuns said before he voted in favor of the ordinance. In January, the General Assembly cleared four constitutional amendments to move on to the last step of their adoption process: a voter referendum. One of those proposed amendments, HJ 1, would enshrine access to abortion in the state constitution if passed by voters.
“With what the Democrats in Richmond are trying to do right now, passing a constitutional amendment that is going to enshrine the right to murder infants at the moment of birth into our constitution, we do need to think about where these clinics could be located,” he said. “And we absolutely need to exercise our broad land use authority to do so. It’s reasonable.”
If the constitutional amendment passes, the state can regulate abortion care in the third trimester, as long as it’s not “medically indicated to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual” or involving a fetus that is “not viable,” according to the amendment text.
Abortion is currently legal in Virginia, with some exceptions, including a requirement for parents to provide consent for a minor’s abortion and a ban on abortions in the third trimester unless three physicians attest to its necessity.
How did the votes fall?
The ordinance passed 4-2, with Taylor, Vice Mayor Curt Diemer, council member Jacqueline Timmer, and Misjuns voting in favor.
Wilder and council member Chris Faraldi voted against the ordinance. Council member Stephanie Reed was absent due to a prior work commitment, Taylor said.
Council members discussed their stances on the ordinance for about an hour after the public comment period of the meeting ended.
Most discussion revolved around what Timmer called a “red herring relay” made by Faraldi. Faraldi said he would vote in favor of the ordinance if an edit was made to clarify the definition of “family planning services,” which are exempt from the regulations of the zoning ordinance as written.
Faraldi announced in a press release and on his website Monday his concern that such ambiguity in the ordinance’s language could lead to a loophole where Planned Parenthood “could claim exemption from the ordinance altogether, bypassing Council review.”
No council members supported his request for the edit.
“I vote no,” Faraldi said as the vote was initiated. “I will never allow Planned Parenthood into this community, and you guys just did.”