By Terry Vanderheyden
NAPLES, Florida, March 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A proposed town to be built in southwest Florida will ban abortion and contraception, said its developer and visionary, Thomas S. Monaghan.
Monaghan, the founder of America’s second-largest pizza chain, Domino’s Pizza, said his proposed town will not allow abortion. Pharmacies there would also not sell the so-called birth-control pill or condoms, and television stations will not carry pornography.
The town, situated on 5,000 acres 30 miles east of Naples is called Ave Maria – also the name of a University founded by Monaghan, currently half way through a full transfer to Naples from it founding location in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The town, which had its official ground-breaking last week, is being constructed around a massive cathedral with a 100-foot spire and a 65-foot crucifix. The plan is to have 11,000 homes ready for occupation by next year.
Monaghan told Newsweek magazine Monday, “I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don’t want to be on the sidelines.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has already begun to plan their attack against the venture. “It is completely naive to think this first attempt [to restrict access to contraception] will be their last,” said ACLU executive director Howard Simon. “If they attempt to do what he apparently wants to do, the people of Naples and Collier County, Florida, are in for a whole series of legal and constitutional problems and a lot of litigation indefinitely into the future,” he added, according to an AP report. Newsweek said Planned Parenthood is also keeping an eye on the project.
Naples Community Hospital said it plans to operate a university clinic in the new town, but did not promise to completely restrict contraceptive prescriptions. Hospital spokesman Edgardo Tenreiro said it is unlikely they would prescribe them for students, but for the general public, probably. “For the general public, the answer is probably yes, but not definitely yes,” he said.