Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and abortionist George Massingill dropped their appeal case against the city of Lubbock — their last ditch effort to undo the city’s ordinance that has effectively stopped the group from committing abortions at their Lubbock location.
On May 1, 2021, the citizens of Lubbock overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance. This was a great victory for Lubbockites, who had been petitioning their city council to boldly and effectively protect the town’s preborn children and vulnerable women since the previous summer of 2020. The catalyst for this protective measure was Planned Parenthood’s announcement that they intended to move back to Lubbock and offer their most lethal and profitable retail — abortion.
When the city councilmen refused to pass the enforceable ordinance, the citizens passed the ordinance themselves by means of a referendum, gathering sufficient verified citizen signatures to place the measure on the city’s May ballot.
While waiting for the election, Planned Parenthood opened and began committing abortions within the community, but on the very day the ordinance passed, the group announced they would no longer commit abortion.
This demonstrated both the reality that Planned Parenthood is a financially motivated industry unwilling to risk being sued for committing abortions and the legal prudence of the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance, which is written skillfully enough to cause the nation’s largest abortion business to step down.
On May 17, 2021, Planned Parenthood and a few affiliates filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that the City of Lubbock could not interfere with the “right” to abortion. However, on June 1, 2021, the day the ordinance took effect, federal Judge James Hendrix dismissed Planned Parenthood’s suit. He stated that Planned Parenthood had not demonstrated standing to sue the city.
In this same suit, the attorney general of Texas issued a memo, supporting Lubbock’s ordinance, and stated, “SB 8 [The Texas Heartbeat Act] clarifies that Lubbock’s ordinance is not preempted.” His memo went on to state, “There is no inconsistency between state and local abortion laws.”
Despite this, on June 29, 2021, Planned Parenthood asked the court to reconsider the dismissal. Since then, no action had been taken by the court until January 21, 2022, when Planned Parenthood filed a motion to dismiss the appeal. There was no real reasoning given for the decision, but one can guess this may be due in part to the strength of the ordinance as well as what could be the foreshadowing of Roe v. Wade’s reversal.
Texas Right to Life is thankful to see this case resolved and Lubbock’s Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance continuing to protect the city’s born and preborn residents from lethal damage of abortion. If you would like to make your town a safe haven and lock the abortion industry out of your city, please contact Texas Right to Life to help you through this process!
