A pro-life conservative group is behind new laws in four counties in Texas and New Mexico that would make it illegal for women to leave the state to get an abortion, with the goal of expanding it further.
Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn is the work of Mark Lee Dickson, director of East Texas Right to Life, and attorney Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas attorney general who wrote the “heartbeat” bill that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade through the Supreme Court.
Together they have helped more than 60 cities, including more than 50 in Texas, ban abortion in those jurisdictions. Goliad County and Mitchell County, Texas and Lea and Roosevelt County, New Mexico have become sanctuary counties.
They also currently support laws banning the so-called “abortion trade,” or allowing women to leave Texas to get an abortion.
Because much of conservative America already bans most abortions, Dickson and Mitchell targeted conservative border towns in states with Democratic legislatures with the bill.
Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn is the work of East Texas Right to Life director Mark Lee Dickson (pictured left) and attorney Jonathan Mitchell (pictured right), the former Texas Solicitor General who wrote the “heartbeat” bill that led to the overturning Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court
Dickson believes the trade is on behalf of the woman carrying the fetus, the paper said Washington Postbecause “the unborn child is always taken against their will.”
His law would seek to punish anyone who helps a woman cross state lines to get an abortion by giving them a car ride or funding them.
The proposal, which has the backing of 20 Texas lawmakers, would allow a husband to sue a woman’s girlfriend who offered to drive her to the car to have an abortion.
The ordinance would not punish the woman who wanted an abortion.
Dickson and Mitchell’s latest idea was recently tabled by lawmakers in the city of Llano, Texas, to ban abortion on “roads within city or county limits.”
For example, to get to New Mexico or the more liberal city of Austin, you would have to use state roads that run through Llano.
Llano’s city council submitted the ordinance fearing it would further divide the city, despite the council’s strong pro-life stance.
Marion Bishop, the mayor of Llano, supports the measure.
‘Is it absolutely necessary? No,’ said Bishop. ‘Is it a statement? Yes it does.’
New Mexico’s Roosevelt County Commission voted in January 2023 to pass an ordinance requiring abortion providers to comply with federal law in the unincorporated portions of the county
The Mitchell County Commission voted in July 2023 to pass an ordinance banning abortion and abortion trafficking
The Goliad County Commission voted on Aug. 28 to pass an ordinance banning abortion and the abortion trade
In December 2022, New Mexico’s Lea County voted unanimously to comply with the federal law on abortion
However, Llano councilors voted 4-1 to introduce the measure before next month’s council meeting.
“I’m not pro-abortion and that’s my personal belief,” said council member Kara Gilliland. “But I can’t sit here knowing that there are 3,400 other citizens in this town who don’t necessarily share my beliefs.”
“You can be mad at me if you want to,” Councilor Laura Almond added. “But I have to sleep with myself at night.”
Dickson expressed his outrage.
“Is this Austin City Council or is this Conservative Llano City Council?” he asked. ‘This is far from over. … Show up at their companies with some signs.”
A local pastor said he knew where Almond worked.
He even expressed his disappointment with Mayor Bisschop’s “symbolic” description of the bill.
“Llano Mayor Marion Bishop, while in favor of the ordinance, is wrong to say the measure is not absolutely necessary and largely symbolic,” he tweeted.
Texas is one of twelve states in America where abortion is completely banned
Abortion advocates argue that all Dickson and Mitchell are doing is spreading fear. Pictured: An abortion rights march in Austin in June 2022
“Abortion trafficking is everywhere in Texas, including on the roads that run through Llano, Texas.”
He cited his success in the Texas city of Odessa, where he was able to replace a council that failed to advance his ordinance within three years.
“Guys, I don’t care if there’s only one person on the city council who wants to approve this,” Dickson told people in another Texas town. “If you have a personal relationship with a council member, get in touch.”
Currently there is a list of 15 cities which Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn focuses on their website, including Naples, Florida; South Lebanon, Ohio; Bellevue, Nebraska; Pueblo, Colorado and Bristol, Virginia.
They claim that twelve of the thirteen ordinances they have submitted to various lawmakers have been victories.
Abortion advocates argue that all Dickson and Mitchell are doing is spreading fear.
“The purpose of these laws is not to enforce them in any meaningful way,” said Neesha Davé, executive director of Texas-based abortion fund Lilith Fund. “It’s the fear that matters. It’s the confusion that matters.’
To date, all six ordinances proposed by the group in the state have been passed.