I am glad to see the conversation happening. I am pro-life with exception. Only my exception doesn't include using abortion as a form of birth control. We all know how to prevent pregnancy. Teach your children and they won't have to be faced with this awful option and live with the consequences of either choice the rest of their lives.

I am Pro-Life too but not sure if the Township or County should be adopting these resolutions.

Unbelievable! Surely the Shelby Board has more pressing issues to attend to at the moment: the 41A Court Issue, the Police & Fire Pension Deficit , current health costs for township employees, declining tax revenues, planning & zoning issues, our roads, sidewalks, libraries, parks, senior housing....the list goes on & on.
Certainly any of those issues deserves the board's attention & focus over such a contentious, politically charged "proclamation" that has no legal standing or effect.

Politicians are entitled to their opinion, may campaign on it to attract voters, but once they are in office they represent ALL the people, not just those with certain beliefs. A non-secular prayer before a township meeting was ok, pushing the boundaries with regard to separation of church & state, but ok, but this is just over the top.

Too late for this decision. Too many of the members of the township board were born anyway.

How can it be bad to support anything that would encourage respect for life? Nothing is more important an issue then to resepect life from conception till natural death. We are not pagans yet.

All for this! Thank you, Shelby board. Don't listen to any of those negative comments that may come your way. You did the right thing!

Is it possible that it was Obamacare, that is mandating employers to provide abortafacients to their employees unless they have a religious exception, that triggered this? It is having a lot of employers who have christian principles give them pause. There is nothing in the Constitution that states that there is, or should be a "seperation of Church and State". It says that we will not promote, nor hinder the establishment thereof (paraphrasing). It was only loosely derived from a letter written to a foriegn dignitary, much later, that inferred this.

While I support this stance, and consider myself prolife, I am puzzled elected officials feel it is their 'job' to make this statement which has NO LEGAL FORCE whatsoever. Seems to be more like a useless waste of time considering there is nothing they can do to make the Twp. residents follow any laws other than the state/federal ones in place regarding abortion. And does anyone truly think their opinion will impact those who may choose abortion? .As a previous poster said..surely there are some huge issues facing them that DOES require their full attention. Frankly this just seems like they are pandering for pro-life voters in an election year.

Dear Republicans,
Why are you NOT allowing future Democrats to be aborted?

Incredibly stupid strategy. Let's bankrupt the country by forcing poor stupid people into having unwanted kids until the 47% is 97%...

By today's standards, Jesus Christ had a dead beat father.

Does Rick Stathakis know the first thing about the history of abortion in this country? Apparently not.

Yes, Rick, "Christians can honor God"--but can they honor a God you don't approve of?

But No, Rick. Abortion laws can not be altered if such alteration would infringe our fundamental rights. Do you know what those are and how they work? Do you? Do you understand the right to privacy and how that plays into a woman's right to do what is best for her person?

Stop legislating morals. Leave your opinions in your home and stick to the constitution.

"You are Free to do as you're told!

You are free to do as you're told!"

Unbelievable!

Proud to be part of the township and county! Way to go Shelby!

Gotta wonder how the Townie Board will respond when "Pro-Choice Month" comes up. They should be expected to pass a similar resoluton.

Even John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic P residenof the USAt, knew enough to keep religion out of politics and NOT to be known as the "Pope's President"

I just don't understand what made the board adopt something so fundamentally Catholic? I understand that there is a huge number of Shelby citizens who are Christian and no one likes the idea of abortion, but to adopt something that is so religiously based seems extremely bias against Shelby citizens who aren't Christians. I personally hate this topic and it seems to me that the board is trying to create more dissention amongst citizens by even addressing this! If they want to do it in their separate political campaigns, fine... but as a whole? This is such a polarizing subject matter and really has no place in the township right now, especially when we all seem so divided as it is. I'm just not sure what they were thinking, or what they were trying to achieve by doing this?

With all the adultry that goes on,including board members ( I heard through the grapevine ) maybe thiis board should adopt a resolution on less adultry and start with themselves as being an example!

shouldn't respecting life be a normal human response? i am not catholic, but who cares who would put that out there.. i would say yes. what is wrong with ppl that they would be upset about respecting life. what does adultry or anything else someone would want to charge board members with (was that a fact based accusation or just something to be said to start a rumor) have to do with respecting life? there is something fundamentally wrong if humans refuse to respect human life. there is not an arguement that will stand to support taking an innocent human life, before birth or an ill person at any age who can't speak for themselves. if you want to keep gov out then roll back roe vs wade, why did the gov get involved in this in the first place??

The fundamental question is: "What are the roles/responsibilities of the elected Shelby Township Board of Trustees?"

Read the information on this link: http://www.shelbytwp.org/board_of_trustees.jsp

Personally, I concur with their views on pro-life, but they clearly over stepped the roles for the positions.

* Note partial information provided on the Shelby Township website.

There are specific statutory responsibilities for each office.
The Supervisor oversees the day-to-day operation of the Township, including the Police and Fire Departments, except for those areas whose responsibility falls to the Clerk or Treasurer.

The Trustees are fiduciaries who vote on issues before the Board. The Board as a whole makes the important decisions for the Township, including things like hiring staff, large purchases, new buildings, and so on. The Board sets the budget to establish the spending for the following year.

This is strictly a "resolution", not costing or binding to taxpayers in any way.
The fact that so many people worry and comment about this topic as opposed to the ethics of a "soon to be trustee", the "operations manager", of a previous Township vendor who is accused of over-billing hundreds of citizens without remorse and is suing Shelby Township taxpayers whom he will soon swear to represent baffles me.
I agree, this subject doesn't belong on the Township agenda but if it was brought up I would have to vote "yeah" also.
But how does the way I feel about life affect taxpayers locally?

What do all these people have in common Kowal, Curtis, Berz, Freeman, Batchelder, Nightingale, Manzella and Leman-They are all friends on David Erickson facebook page-A vote for Erickson is a vote for all the above

I would like the board to also pass a "resolution" condeming pedaphile priests, ministers and others who are calling themselves Christians. Let's pass a "resolution"
condeming the murder of thousands of innocent men, women,and children in foreign countries in the name of "Freedom". Are their lives less Sacred and valued than American lives ??? Or are they just "Military Collateral Damage"??? Does the Commandment "THOU SHALL NOT KILL" apply ony some of the time? . Go down to some of the Homeless Shelters or Battered Womens Shelters and see how we "SUPPORT" these women and children. RESOLUTIONS AND TALK ARE CHEAP.

I find it incredible how much response and attention this non-binding resolution has garnered. Some of the responses have gone beyond the scope of the resolution but I like the honest, open discussion and that most has been respectful.