Louisiana City Votes to Ban Abortions, Becomes First in State to Protect Babies

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Mar 25, 2022   |   11:42AM   |   Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Pollock City Council made history this week by passing the first Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance in the state of Louisiana.

KALB News reports the council voted 4-1 in favor of the ordinance, which protects unborn babies by banning abortions within city limits.

“I am very proud Pollock is a pro-life town,” Pastor Brian Gunter of First Baptist Church of Pollock told the city council. “We value the lives of children. We care about families … and by passing this ordinance, our message is very simple: … innocent blood will not be spilled upon our soil.”

Pollock joins nearly 50 other cities in Texas, Nebraska and Ohio that also passed Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinances.

There is no abortion facility in Pollock, but the ordinance will prevent one from ever opening there. It also will combat the rise of mail-order abortion drugs, which the Biden administration began allowing late last year, explained Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative

“Abortion facilities cannot set up shop here in this city and murder innocent children born in the image of God,” Dickson said. “The abortion pill cannot be sent into the town of Pollock either. It’s against the law. Just like you can’t have ammo shipped into New Orleans, you can’t have the abortion pill shipped into Pollock.”

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Mayor Douglas Beavers, who supported the ordinance, said he believes protecting unborn babies is one of the reasons why God allowed him to be in office, according to the local news.

“I had a baby in 2021,” Beavers said. “She passed away, and before we had the child, they had given my wife the option of an abortion, and we decided against it. And that little girl touched more people’s lives than most people do in a lifetime.”

The lone opponent of the ordinance, Councilwoman Cindy Dickey, said the government should not get involved in the abortion issue, the report continues.

“It’s between me and God,” Dickey said. “What God and I talk about, that is a complete separation of church and state. I think a lot of things in this rule are good, but the resolution goes way too far.”

Two other cities, Shallowater and Lindale, Texas, also passed Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinances this week, Dickson said.

Writing at Live Action News, Dickson said the Pollock ordinance outlaws abortion as well as aiding and abetting an abortion within the city limits. It also prohibits employers within city limits from providing abortion coverage in health insurance benefits and outlaws the possession or distribution of abortion-inducing drugs.

The ordinance defines “abortion” as “the act of using or prescribing an instrument, a drug, a medicine, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to cause the death of an unborn child of a woman known to be pregnant.” It states that the act is not an abortion if it is done with the intent to “save the life or preserve the health of an unborn child,” to “remove a dead, unborn child whose death was caused by accidental miscarriage,” to “remove an ectopic pregnancy” or to save the life of the mother.

The ordinance is part of a growing grassroots movement to protect unborn babies at the city and county level – one that is alarming the abortion industry. And thus far, the pro-life ordinances have withstood legal challenges.

In 2021, 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 later that year. Then, in January, Planned Parenthood decided to drop its lawsuit completely in a major victory for life.

Though abortion activists have threatened legal action, other cities also have been successful in court thus far. In 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union dropped its lawsuit challenging several Texas cities’ pro-life ordinances.

Other cities and counties have been passing pro-life resolutions, which are statements of support but not enforceable law, that recognize unborn babies’ right to life. In Arkansas, 19 counties and 10 cities and towns have passed pro-life resolutions, according to Family Council of Arkansas. Several North Carolina counties passed pro-life resolutions recently, too.