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By Julia Harte
(Reuters) – Two Texas jurisdictions will contemplate measures this week to outlaw the act of transporting one other particular person alongside their roads for an abortion, a part of a technique by conservative activists to additional limit abortion for the reason that U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade.
Commissioners in Lubbock County are slated to vote on the proposal on Monday. Just a few hours north, the Amarillo Metropolis Council on Tuesday will weigh its personal such regulation, which may result in a future council or city-wide vote.
Lubbock and Amarillo are the largest jurisdictions of the ten locations in Texas which have thought-about restrictions on abortion-related transportation for the reason that June 2022 finish of Roe, which had granted a nationwide proper to abortion. 5 cities and counties within the state have handed bans.
Lubbock and Amarillo are each traversed by main highways that join Texas, which has one of many county’s most stringent abortion legal guidelines, to neighboring New Mexico, the place abortion is authorized.
Anti-abortion activists backing the proposals say they’re meant to bolster Texas’ present abortion ban, which permits non-public residents to sue anybody who gives or “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks of being pregnant.
Advocates of reproductive rights say the measures may deter individuals from looking for abortions or serving to others get abortions, despite the fact that there isn’t any clear solution to implement the bans. No violations have been reported within the 5 jurisdictions which have adopted them. Their reliance on citizen enforcement makes them tough to problem in courtroom.
The larger impression of the ordinances up to now seems to be how either side is utilizing them to impress voters and pursue greater political targets heading into an election yr during which abortion stays a hot-button challenge.
BOTH SIDES MOBILIZING
The marketing campaign to ban abortion-related transit in Texas was began by Mark Lee Dickson, a Christian pastor who started pushing communities to outlaw abortion by declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn” in 2019.
Dickson travels extensively to pitch his measures. He additionally mobilizes supporters to unseat native leaders who oppose the proposals, with the purpose of electing officers who can even push different far-right insurance policies.
He took that method in Odessa’s metropolis elections in 2022 after the council initially blocked one in every of his “sanctuary metropolis for the unborn” proposals. Dickson responded by marshalling assist for council candidates who pledged to approve it.
As soon as elected, the candidates he backed not solely declared Odessa a “sanctuary metropolis,” but in addition adopted the state’s first abortion transport ban and took different steps Dickson supported, corresponding to rejecting state and federal COVID-19-related mandates.
“This is not over simply once you handle one challenge,” Dickson mentioned in an interview.
He plans to be on the conferences in Lubbock and Amarillo this week.
Lubbock County Commissioner Jason Corley mentioned he was impressed to carry the transport ban to a vote on Monday after listening to Dickson put it on the market at Lubbock’s Constitutionalist Society. Corley, who has supported Dickson’s work for years, mentioned he anticipated the measure to cross.
Not all backers of abortion restrictions assist Dickson’s transport bans, nonetheless.
Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley mentioned he supported Dickson’s “sanctuary metropolis” motion, however is anxious that the transport bans depend on civil enforcement and don’t make clear what native authorities are anticipated to do, doubtlessly entangling town in investigations introduced by non-public actors.
The debates over the transport bans are spurring new exhibits of assist for abortion entry.
In Lubbock County, Kimberleigh Gonzalez is organizing a neighborhood Fb group of 1,100 reproductive rights supporters to indicate their opposition to the measure at Monday’s assembly.
The group fashioned after Lubbock voters authorized a “sanctuary metropolis” ordinance backed by Dickson in Might 2021. Every new assault on reproductive rights “brings us collectively a bit extra tightly,” Gonzalez mentioned.
“Since 2021, I do know lots of people personally which might be concerned that weren’t earlier than, and it simply continues to develop and strengthen,” she mentioned.
Abortion rights supporters, together with 4 abortion funds in Texas, mentioned they anticipated the transport bans to backfire on the anti-abortion motion by galvanizing political participation from abortion rights advocates within the lead-up to subsequent yr’s presidential election.
“We’ll make it possible for there are political and electoral penalties for this,” mentioned Rachel O’Leary Carmona, government director of the Girls’s March activist group.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins and Leslie Adler)
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