Pro-Life activists urged the Abilene City Council to pursue an ordinance declaring the West Texas town the second “Mother and Unborn Child Sanctuary City” in Texas. If passed, the ordinance would declare abortion to be murder and prevent abortion businesses from setting up shop in the city.
Thursday night was the first procedural step for Abilene moving toward becoming a “Mother and Unborn Child Sanctuary City.” The council heard public comments from citizens urging them to draft and schedule the Pro-Life ordinance for consideration at the next council meeting.
Texas Right to Life Legislative Director John Seago attended the meeting in support of the Abilene activists driving the ordinance. Seago stated, “The vast majority of Abilene voters are Pro-Life… Almost a supermajority of your citizens are Pro-Life and vote that way.” Deborah Nelms, a professional mentor for young women, shared her clients’ testimonies who suffered abortions. “So many of these women have told me that they would have never had an abortion if they knew the truth,” she noted.
Many West Texans at the meeting emphasized Abilene’s responsibility to protect the preborn. One of the lawyers who argued for Roe v. Wade in 1973 at the Supreme Court of the United States, Sarah Weddington, was born in Abilene and graduated from McMurry University. Many also highlighted the concerning point that Planned Parenthood has expressed interest in reopening a location in West Texas after receiving a $9 million gift to target the region.
If passed, the ordinance would prevent abortion groups from establishing operations in the city, and would unequivocally condemn the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized elective abortion. Additionally, the ordinance would include language to protect women who seek or undergo abortions from being penalized, because women, too, are victims of abortion.
Texas is a target for the abortion industry, yet the Texas Legislature failed to ban any abortions this year. Local governments must now take matters into their own hands to protect preborn children and their mothers. Texas Right to Life commends the Pro-Life citizens of Abilene who brought this ordinance to the attention of their city council and looks forward to the council’s future consideration of the ordinance at their next meeting.
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