A pro-life campaign that began last year in the little East Texas town of Waskom is quickly spreading.
Texans have long been known for their independent streak. Now they’re leading the way with a grassroots rebellion against abortion, and perhaps deserve a shout-out at this week’s national March for Life on Friday.
A pro-life campaign that began last year in the little East Texas town of Waskom is quickly spreading.
In January, three more communities voted to declare themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn,” bringing the total to eight pro-life sanctuaries in the Lone Star State. Several more, including the city of Abilene (pop. 123,000), are slated to vote on similar measures, according to LifeSiteNews.
Moral Equivalency
Quicker than you can say “moral equivalency,” detractors might compare the effort to that of liberal jurisdictions that have declared themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. Here’s the difference: One “sanctuary” is pro-life, one is pro-lawlessness. The pro-life sanctuaries protect human life, a right guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence and stated specifically in the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
The same might be said for Virginia cities’ recent declarations to be Second Amendment sanctuaries, since the right to own firearms is stated directly in the Constitution itself.
By contrast, the “right” to illegally enter the United States is nowhere in the Constitution, nor is the “right” to abortion. The latter was made up of whole cloth by liberal Supreme Court judges in an “exercise of raw judicial power,” according to Associate Justice Byron White’s dissent in Roe v. Wade (1973).
The liberal sanctuaries encourage lawbreaking by instructing local and state officials not to cooperate with federal immigration agencies as required by U.S. law.
The Texas anti-abortion measures “empower families of post-abortive women the ability to sue abortionists for emotional distress, and the Colorado City version would also prohibit the sale of the contraceptive Plan B, which can also function as an abortifacient,” according to LifeSite.
The Beginning
The campaign began on June 12, 2019, when the Waskom City Council voted unanimously to become the first Sanctuary City for the Unborn in Texas.
That action followed the city of Roswell, New Mexico’s vote in March to become the first American community to adopt a resolution declaring it a “sanctuary city for the unborn,” but the Texas ordinances go even further, banning abortions within city limits.
Organizations that perform abortions or refer clients to abortionists in the Texas cities are considered “criminal organizations,” such as Planned Parenthood or NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, Fox News reports.
Big Spring (pop. 28,000) and Colorado City (4,000) voted for the ordinances on Tuesday, with Rusk (5,500) enacting it the week before, the Texas Tribune reported. Big Springs’ City Council must vote once more for final approval.
“To say we can’t ban abortion is simply not true,” Right to Life of East Texas Director John Dixon told Fox News. Dixon is traveling around the state assisting others in framing ordinances. He has “every intention of targeting every part of the state,” he said.
“We’re passing laws because resolutions do not prevent abortion clinics from coming into cities, but ordinances, a law put in place, will,” he said. “This is a strong stance that babies will not be murdered in our cities. We need to stand up with our leaders in bringing this Holocaust to an end once and for all.”
For more information, see Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn at: https://sanctuarycitiesfortheunborn.com/
A writer for Timothy Partners, Ltd. He is a regular weekly columnist for The Washington Times and Townhall.com and is frequently published by AmericanThinker.com, DailyCaller.com, OneNewsNow.com, and others. He has authored the following books: “A Strong Constitution: What Would America Look Like If We Followed the Law” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2018), Invested with Purpose: The Birth of the Biblically-Responsible Investment Movement, and A Nation Worth Fighting For: 10 Steps to Restore Freedom.