31st Texas City Bans Abortions: Eastland Commissioners Unanimously Declare a 'Sanctuary City for the Unborn'
Another Texas city has banned abortions within its city limits and has declared itself a "Sanctuary City for the Unborn."
On Wednesday, the City Commission of Eastland, Texas, passed its "Sanctuary City for the Unborn" ordinance. The local mandate prevents the abortion industry from doing business within city limits and is immediately enforceable.
The move makes Eastland (Population 3,970), the 34th city in the nation and the 31st city in Texas to pass an enforceable ordinance outlawing abortion within their city limits.
According to the "Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn" Facebook page, after the second and final reading, the commissioners voted 5 to 0 to approve the ordinance.
"Let's speak the truth, an unborn child is a child. Once life enters the womb that life must be protected. This ordinance prevents abortions from happening in our town," City Commissioner Zac Darr said. "Abortion is a travesty, and it should not have been allowed to happen - ever! Here in Eastland, we will not allow the killing of innocent human beings - regardless of whether those human beings are inside or outside the womb."
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The new ordinance does not penalize women who seek or undergo an abortion. Rather the policy holds those who profit from taking the child's life, such as the abortionist and those who aid and abet in the abortion, solely responsible, according to the pro-life organization Texas Right to Life.
The organization stated on its website the "Sanctuary City for the Unborn" ordinance works simultaneously within the confines of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, current Texas law, and the authority of individual cities to protect their residents by stepping in where the state and federal governments have failed.
Texas Right to Life said it applauds the efforts of Eastland's pro-life citizens in bold defense of life and urges other cities across Texas to join the growing movement to protect women and pre-born children.
The City of Eastland is located 96 miles west-southwest of Fort Worth. It is the county seat for Eastland County.
As CBN News reported, in 2019, the small East Texas city of Waskom became the first in the country to adopt a local ordinance banning abortion. Since then, a pro-life sanctuary city movement has begun with more than 35 cities adopting similar legislation. That includes 31 in Texas, two in Nebraska, and one in Ohio.
Sanctuary city movement founder Mark Lee Dickson told CBN News in June that with its call to pursue justice in the courts or city gate inspired him to focus on abortion at the local level.
"I just want to be obedient to the Word of God," he said.
LifeSite News reports several of the cities have faced lawsuits by pro-abortion groups, but none of the legal challenges have succeeded.
