A small town in East Texas outlawed abortion after a council of five men declared the town a “sanctuary city for the unborn”.Waksom, Texas, has a population of just over 2,000 people and borders Louisiana. The town has no abortion clinics. Despite this, the city council, which is comprised of five white men, signed a city ordinance banning abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the pregnant person as reported by the Washington Post. The city council was applauded by community members after passing the ordinance as a “preventative measure”. The measure states “the Supreme Court erred in Roe v. Wade when it said that pregnant women have a constitutional right to abort their “pre-born children” and co-opts pro-immigrant language, using the term “sanctuary city”, which generally refers to cities where migrants leading safe and lawful lives are safe from deportation. After Louisiana passed a restrictive abortion bill, anti-choice activists were fearful that a nearby facility across the border would move near their community. This city ordinance comes with the rising tides of abortion bans across America, ranging from foetal heartbeat bills to an all out ban in Alabama. This move, like many of the other abortion bans, is set up to provide a legal challenge to the Supreme Court precedent of Roe v Wade, which defends a pregnant persons right to abortion until foetal viability. The measure describes Roe v Wade as a “lawless and illegitimate act of judicial usurpation, which violates the Tenth Amendment by trampling the reserved powers of the States, and denies the people of each State a Republican Form of Government by imposing abortion policy through judicial decree.”With a conservative leaning Supreme Court bench, it is believed that the 1973 case may be overturned and federal protections for abortion will cease.Town residents aren’t concerned about a potential costly legal battle as, according to local media, “they say God will take care of them.”On the other side of the abortion debate, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, Aimee Arrambide, called the move a “dangerous attempt to undermine Roe v. Wade.“ Ms Arrambide reassured those seeking abortion that “abortion remains legal in all 50 states” in a statement on Thursday.“We will not be intimidated.”
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