Another Texas city took action to protect unborn babies’ lives Monday when it passed a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance that outlaws abortions within its limits.
The unanimous vote by the Slaton City Council makes the city the 43rd in the United States to protect unborn babies by banning abortions, Everything Lubbock reports.
Mayor Clifton Shaw told the news outlet that they did not receive any comments in opposition to the ordinance. He said he supports making it easier for children to be adopted.
“There’s a lot of kids up there who deserve a family,” Shaw said. “Sea turtles get more respect than a human fetus does in this country.”
Mark Lee Dickson, the director of Right to Life of East Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, celebrated after the vote. He said Slaton is the 39th city in Texas and the 43rd in the U.S. to outlaw abortions.
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On Facebook, he shared a quote from Stacey Saahir, one of the local residents who advocated for the ordinance: “I’m extremely proud of Slaton’s mayor, the City Commission, and their vote for life! It felt so amazing! As tears of joy ran down my face I could feel the joy around me! My hope has been restored that the evil act of abortion will eventually be abolished! Even if it’s one heart, one city, or one state at a time!”
Meanwhile, pro-lifers in Abilene and San Angelo are working this winter to pass Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinances in their cities.
Local efforts to protect unborn babies from abortion are growing. Cities in Ohio and Nebraska also have passed pro-life ordinances that ban abortions. However, two cities did repeal their ordinances: Mason, Ohio and Omaha, Texas.
The cities’ ordinances are saving babies’ lives and withstanding legal challenges.
In May, voters in Lubbock, Texas overwhelmingly approved a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance on the ballot, and Planned Parenthood was forced to stop aborting unborn babies there. The abortion chain challenged the ordinance, but a judge threw out its lawsuit this summer.
Each ordinance differs slightly in every city, but generally, the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance makes it “unlawful for any person to procure or perform an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy” in the city. It also prohibits “any person to knowingly aid or abet an abortion” and treats abortion-inducing drugs as contraband within the city limits.
In most cities, the ordinance has both public and private enforcement mechanisms. 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 in violation of the ordinance.
Though abortion activists have threatened legal action, the cities have been successful in court thus far. In 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union dropped its lawsuit challenging several Texas cities’ pro-life ordinances
