By Ashley L.
For the past few months, San Angelo citizens have been urging their city council to pass an enforceable ordinance which would outlaw abortion within the city limits, thereby protecting the town’s preborn children, women, and community from the possibility of the abortion industry returning. Moreover, this Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance would boldly and legally demonstrate to the state and federal government that San Angelo, along with the nearly 40 other cities across Texas and the United States, will not permit the abortion industry to profit off the destruction of innocent human Life within their jurisdiction.
In August, citizens of San Angelo began attending the council meetings to testify in support of the city council passing the ordinance. Some of those testifying have shared their personal heartbreaking testimony of having chosen an abortion, and the regret and pain they experience from such a traumatic event. Others encouraged the city council to pass the ordinance by sharing their personal adoption stories and expressing their gratitude that their mother or the mother of their adopted loved ones had chosen Life. A majority of those testifying were simply concerned citizens who wished to see the city council pass the ordinance and protect all innocent preborn lives and their mothers from the violence of abortion, while encouraging real support be offered to pregnant women and their children with valuable assistance like that found at the city’s local pregnancy help center.
The majority of citizens attending these city council meetings have been Pro-Life; only a handful of anti-Life individuals have attended and testified in opposition to the ordinance. One woman told the council in her testimony on September 21 that:
I have been a teacher and I have seen in our school systems the effect of children who cannot go home at night safely. And if their parents had a choice, they would not have had them…Ya, you bring them into the world and oh they’re cute like puppies and then they grow up. There is something that we need to do, and that is let women make their own choices about their own bodies.
This citizen rightly expressed disgust at the tragedy that some children’s parents are neglectful and abusive. But what she failed to acknowledge, as do nearly all anti-Life advocates, is that Life is always preferable to death, and that these reasons peddled for abortion are insufficient and unjust reasons to take the life of any innocent human being. From the moment of fertilization, there is an independent, individual human being, unlike anyone else, who is inherently valuable and worthy of legal protection.
On October 5, the San Angelo City Council voted 5-2 to pass an unenforceable proclamation supporting the Right to Life and the Texas Heartbeat Act. The two councilmen, Lane Carter and Larry Miller, who voted against the unenforceable proclamation did so in protest of the council not placing the enforceable ordinance on their agenda for a vote. Words will not stop abortionists from intentionally killing babies for profit. The City of San Angelo must pass an enforceable ordinance to actually prohibit abortion in city limits and prevent abortion providers from setting up shop in the town.
Despite this delay, the citizens will not lose their resolve on this crucial issue. Texas Right to Life applauds the commitment of those in San Angelo and around the state working to pass this ordinance. If you would like to lead your city in becoming a Sanctuary City for the Unborn, please contact Texas Right to Life and we will work with you to pass this enforceable ordinance in your city.