16th Texas City Bans Abortions, Becomes “Sanctuary for the Unborn”

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Oct 13, 2020   |   5:01PM   |   Morton, Texas

And the list keeps growing.

On Monday, Morton, Texas became the 16th city to declare itself a Sanctuary for the Unborn and prohibit abortions, The Texan reports.

The city council voted unanimously to pass the pro-life ordinance, said Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas and leader of the Sanctuary for the Unborn effort.

The ordinance recognizes that unborn babies are valuable human beings who deserve to be protected under the law. It prohibits abortions within city limits and prevents abortion businesses from opening there. The ordinance also penalizes abortionists for aborting unborn babies, but it does not penalize women who seek or have abortions.

During the meeting, Morton Mayor Kim Silhan said the science is clear that human life begins at conception, and abortion kills a child, according to the report.

“If a pregnant woman is murdered the killer is charged with double homicide, as in the case of Lacy Peterson and many others. As for me, my decision was cemented within me years ago. Life begins at conception, period,” she said. “Science backs up my beliefs, and aren’t we preached to daily by the media to listen to science?”

Silhan said her Christian beliefs also make it clear that abortion is wrong.

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“In Exodus 20:13 it says, ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ It’s not excusable to stay silent and not speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” she said.

Councilman Buckie Dobson said the ordinance will protect children in their community.

“We are protecting our community by doing this. We are putting a barrier, a fence around our town here, saying, ‘This will not happen in Morton.’ We will stand up for the kids in this town. We will stand up so they can grow up and become adults and become future leaders of this town, this state, and of this nation,” he said, according to the report.

Other Texas cities that have passed Sanctuary for the Unborn ordinances are New HomeEast MountainWhiteface, Wells, Big SpringRuskWaskom, Naples, Joaquin, Tenaha, Gilmer and Westbrook. Omaha also passed an ordinance but later retracted it and passed a non-enforceable resolution instead.

Pro-lifers in Lubbock also are urging the city council to pass a Sanctuary for the Unborn ordinance  after Planned Parenthood announced plans to open a new abortion facility there.

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.”

Each ordinance includes a public enforcement mechanism and a private enforcement mechanism. The public enforcement mechanism establishes fines against the abortionist and anyone who helps with an abortion within city limits. However, it cannot be enforced until Roe v. Wade is overturned.

However, the private enforcement mechanism is immediate. It makes abortionists and those who help them “liable in tort to a surviving relative of the aborted unborn child, including the unborn child’s mother, father, grandparents, siblings or half-siblings,” meaning the abortionist can be sued for aborting the unborn child.

Abortion activists have tried to stop the Sanctuary for the Unborn effort, but, in May, the American Civil Liberties Union dropped its lawsuit challenging seven of the cities’ ordinances.