Amarillo City Council must vote on abortion travel ban following successful voter petition

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LUBBOCK — The Amarillo City Council must consider a policy that outlaws using local streets to access an abortion in other states after the city verified supporters of the policy gathered enough signatures to advance the issue.

The five-member council in the heart of the Texas Panhandle had been reluctant to follow other conservative cities and counties that have put the largely symbolic policy in place.

In an announcement confirming the successful petition drive, the city said the petition will be presented to the council during its meeting on May 28. The council may then hold a public meeting on the same day to consider the ordinance or schedule the discussion for a future date. The council must vote on the petition within 30 days of it being presented.

Depending on the council’s decision — the committee behind the ordinance is unwilling to budge on certain provisions — the final say could be up to Amarillo voters in November.

On social media, Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas who is leading the charge, said he is looking forward to the next step of the process.

Lindsay London, co-founder of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, said the group is preparing for whatever comes next.

“We are continuing to meet with the mayor and City Council,” London said, “to work to ensure that extremist rhetoric does not overshadow the diverse needs and perspectives in our community.”

Amarillo’s City Council first took up the issue in October, but did not immediately approve the ordinance. In December, the council signaled it was willing to pass a version of the proposed policy that focused on restricting access to abortion-inducing medication for medical abortions, and regulating the disposal of human remains.

The travel ban was removed entirely from that version — a key component for anti-abortion activists, as Interstates 40 and 27 run through the city. A group of residents, who Dickson said were “uncomfortable” with the direction the council was taking, then began circulating the petition.

The original ordinance supporters want to see passed in the city does not call for pregnant women to be punished for having an abortion out of state. However, anti-abortion legal crusader Jonathan Mitchell has filed legal petitions seeking to depose women he claims traveled out of state for abortions. Mitchell is working with anti-abortion activists pushing the travel ban on a municipal level.

The proposed policy makes anyone who “aids and abet” the procedure vulnerable to a private lawsuit from other citizens. This is the only enforcement mechanism for the ordinance, creating a system for neighbors to turn on each other to collect reward money — which some council members have been outright against.

Recently, city leaders in Clarendon, about 60 miles southeast of Amarillo, rejected passing the “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance. The cities of Llano and Chandler held off on making decisions to approve or reject the travel ban.

Other cities and counties in Texas have passed ordinances to prohibit traveling through their jurisdictions for an abortion outside the state. This includes the cities of Athens, Abilene, Plainview, San Angelo, Odessa, Muenster and Little River-Academy, and Mitchell, Goliad, Lubbock, Dawson, Cochran and Jack counties.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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