THE GUARDIAN – A city nestled in the northern tip of Texas, which was at the heart of a major US supreme court case over abortion rights this year, has found itself at the forefront once again.
Come November, residents of Amarillo, Texas, will vote on an ordinance that would declare Amarillo a “sanctuary city for the unborn” and ban people from helping [women] travel through Amarillo to access abortions – what the ordinance calls “abortion trafficking”.
It would also ban people from possessing or distributing abortion pills within Amarillo city limits.
Over the last several months, a string of Texas localities have passed similar ordinances.
Amarillo’s city council spent months arguing over whether to pass its own “sanctuary city” ordinance, but in June, the council officially rejected it.
However, while the ordinance languished before the council, a separate group gathered enough signatures for the ordinance to appear on Amarillo’s November ballot.
Although the city council is still deliberating the language to describe the ordinance on the ballot, activists in the city are already gearing up to campaign against it.
“We are ready,” said Lindsay London, an activist with the [so-called] Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance.
“Travel bans harm communities. They harm the privacy of medical relationships. They do not help our communities to be strong and safe and supported.”
Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, which is run by volunteers, plans to canvass, phone-bank and even take out billboards.
“We’ve never done this before,” London said. “We have our work cut out for us” …
