12th Texas City Bans Abortion, Declares Itself a “Sanctuary for the Unborn”

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 11, 2020   |   10:51AM   |   Wells, Texas

Rural communities across Texas are taking important steps to protect unborn babies from abortion.

On Monday, the city of Wells in eastern Texas became the 12th city to pass a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance to ban abortions and protect unborn babies’ lives.

Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, told LifeNews that the vote was unanimous.

“Because the City of Wells passed this ordinance abortion is prohibited in Wells, Texas,” Dickson said. “Way to go Wells, Texas!”

Just a few weeks earlier, Big Spring in West Texas became the largest city in the country to pass a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance.

The pro-life ordinances recognize that unborn babies are valuable human beings who deserve to be protected under the law. They prohibit abortions within city limits and prevent abortion businesses from opening there. The ordinances also penalize abortionists for aborting unborn babies, but they do not penalize women who seek or have abortions.

The ordinance states: “the Supreme Court erred in Roe v. Wade, when it said that pregnant women have a constitutional right to abort their unborn children, as there is no language anywhere in the Constitution that even remotely suggests that abortion is a constitutional right . . . constitutional scholars have excoriated Roe v. Wade for its lack of reasoning and its decision to concoct a constitutional right to abortion that has no textual foundation in the Constitution or any source of law.”

Previously, Rusk, Waskom, Naples, Joaquin, Tenaha, Gilmer and Westbrook also approved sanctuary city ordinances to protect unborn babies. Omaha also passed an ordinance but later retracted it and passed a non-enforceable resolution instead.

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These ordinances are particularly important because Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in the nation, confirmed that it is looking to expand in West Texas, Texas Right to Life told LifeNews.com earlier this year.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas recently received an anonymous donation of $9 million in 2019 for the explicit purpose of building two West Texas abortion facilities. Also, Planned Parenthood currently has a billboard campaign in Abilene, San Angelo, and other neighboring cities.

Abortion activists with the American Civil Liberties Union have been threatening to sue the sanctuary cities, but no one has filed a legal challenge yet. Some lawyers have warned towns about passing the ordinances because of a potential legal challenge. The U.S. Supreme Court took away the power of state and local governments to protect unborn babies from abortion through Roe v. Wade.

But Dickson told LifeNews that the ordinances take this into account. He said the ordinances have “a public enforcement mechanism and a private enforcement mechanism. The public enforcement mechanism is about future enforcement.”

He said the public enforcement part of the ordinance fines abortionists $2,000 per abortion, but the penalty only would be enforced when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

“In other words, if you break the law today, you could be penalized for that crime years from now,” Dickson said. “The private enforcement mechanism does not have to wait upon the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and is in effect immediately. This part of the ordinance is about private lawsuits. When a child is killed by abortion, the family of that child … can sue the abortionist, the one who paid for the abortion, the one who drove the mother to the abortion, etc.”

A growing number of towns and cities have passed ordinances and resolutions to protect the unborn. An ordinance is a municipal government law or regulation. A resolution is a statement of support or opposition, but it is not legally enforceable.

In 2019, Roswell, New Mexico city leaders passed a pro-life resolution after state lawmakers considered a radical pro-abortion bill to expand late-term abortions. The bill narrowly failed to pass.

In New York state, Batavia city leaders and Putnam County legislators also passed resolutions condemning a radical new pro-abortion law in their state and supporting protections for the unborn.

Also in 2019, the Riverton City Council in Utah passed a similar resolution, declaring the city a “sanctuary for the unborn.” The Utah County Commission unanimously voted in favor of a resolution supporting protections for unborn babies. The council in Highland, Utah and the city of Springdale, Arkansas also approved pro-life resolutions last summer.