The Ordinance

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About 60 political subdivisions throughout the State of Texas have passed enforceable ordinances further prohibiting abortion within their jurisdiction. Amarillo’s SCFTU Ordinance stands with close to 20 of these ordinances containing provisions prohibiting abortion trafficking, placing the Amarillo SCFTU Ordinance to be at least as strong as the ordinances passed in political subdivisions like: Lubbock County, Odessa, Abilene, San Angelo and Plainview.

The Six Major Points

The ordinance contains prohibitions seeking to close six major loopholes in Texas anti-abortion laws. Those six prohibitions are as follows: 

1. Prohibit performing elective abortions and aiding or abetting elective abortions under local law by extending the private enforcement mechanism found in the Texas Heartbeat Act to the point of conception (Section 8-6-2). 

KEY TEXT:  “It shall be unlawful for any person to procure or perform an elective abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy in the city of Amarillo, Texas. The prohibition in this section extends to drug-induced abortions in which any portion of the drug regimen is ingested in the city of Amarillo, Texas, and it applies regardless of where the person who performs or procures the abortion is located… It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly engage in conduct that aids or abets an elective abortion.” 

2. Prohibit elective abortions on residents of Amarillo and the abortion trafficking of such residents, outside the State of Texas (Section 8-6-3). 

KEY TEXT:  “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly perform an elective abortion or knowingly engage in conduct that aids or abets an elective abortion if the abortion is performed on a resident of Amarillo, regardless of the location of the abortion, regardless of the law in the jurisdiction where the abortion occurred, and regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion was performed or induced on a resident of Amarillo.” 

3. Prohibit the abortion trafficking of an unborn child through the city of Amarillo. The ordinance also prohibits aiding or abetting abortion trafficking, stopping abortion traffickers from using the roads of the city of Amarillo, Texas, for illegal abortion trafficking operations (Section 8-6-4). 

KEY TEXT:  “It is the policy of the city of Amarillo to protect unborn children passing through the city from individuals and organizations that aid or abet the killing of unborn children, and to protect the unborn from those who seek to kill or otherwise harm them, to the maximum extent permissible under state and federal law. The prohibitions in this section and chapter shall apply extraterritorially to the maximum extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States and the Texas Constitution… It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly transport any individual for the purpose of providing or obtaining an elective abortion, regardless of where the elective abortion will occur. This section shall apply only if the transportation of such individual begins, ends, or passes through the city of Amarillo.” 

4. Prohibit abortion-inducing drugs from being manufactured, possessed, distributed, mailed, transported, delivered, or provided in any manner to or from any person or location in the City of Amarillo (Section 8-6-5). 

KEY TEXT:  “It shall be unlawful for any person to: Manufacture, possess, or distribute abortion-inducing drugs in Amarillo; Mail, transport, deliver, or provide abortion-inducing drugs in any manner to or from any person conduct that would make one an accomplice to the conduct described in subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) under the principles of complicity set forth in section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code.” 

5. Prohibit criminal organizations who are violating federal laws, prohibiting the mailing and receiving of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion paraphernalia from doing business in, or receiving grants from, the City of Amarillo. This provision recognizes any entity violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461-1462 (also known as the Comstock Act) by shipping or receiving abortion inducing drugs or abortion paraphernalia to be criminal organizations in violation of federal law (Section 8-6-6). 

KEY TEXT:  “It shall be unlawful for any criminal organization described… to operate or do business in the city of Amarillo.” 

“The following entities are declared to be criminal organizations: (1) Any organization that violates 18 U.S.C. § 1461 by using the mails for the mailing, carriage in the mails, or delivery of: Any article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion; or Any article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion; Any organization that violates 18 U.S.C. § 1462 by: Using any express company or other common carrier or interactive computer service for carriage in interstate or foreign commerce of any drug, medicine, article, or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion; Knowingly taking or receiving, from such express company or other common carrier or interactive computer service, any matter or thing described… (3) Any organization that violates the enacted abortion statutes of any state or local jurisdiction, regardless of whether the statutes or the enforcement of those statutes has been enjoined or declared unconstitutional by a court; and (4) Any affiliate of an organization described in Subparagraphs (1) or (2).” 


6. Prohibit the transportation and disposal of the remains of unborn children killed by elective abortions. (Section 8-6-7) 

KEY TEXT:  “It shall be unlawful for any person to transport the remains of an unborn child who was killed by an elective abortion from any abortion provider into the city of Amarillo, or to dispose of such remains from any abortion provider within the city of Amarillo.” These six provisions all do something that current law in Texas does not and would make Amarillo one of the safest cities in Texas for pregnant mothers and their unborn childre n.  

These six provisions all do something that current law in Texas does not and would make Amarillo one of the safest cities in Texas for pregnant mothers and their unborn children.