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 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.
