September 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Tenaha, Texas, became the fifth U.S. city to become a “sanctuary for the unborn” after unanimously passing an ordinance this week, according to reports.
Four other cities had passed an ordinance banning abortion, LifeNews reported. Waskom, Omaha, Naples and Joaquin are all also in Texas.
The city of Gilmer, Texas, passed a similar ordinance on Tuesday, a report from the Longview News-Journal said, bringing the number to six.
An ordinance is a local law or regulation. Where an ordinance is a legislative act, a resolution is an expression of opinion or mind or policy concerning some particular item of business before the legislative body.
Some local governments in other parts of the United States have passed resolutions declaring pro-life sanctuary status this year. However, the resolutions, unlike ordinances, do not have legal weight.
East Texas Right to Life is behind an effort to pass the pro-life ordinances in every Texas town.
“This is not a political game, this is not just, we are going to say we are pro-life and not vote like it,” said Mark Lee Dickson, the group’s director. “This is an opportunity for the city council of Gilmer to not just say there are pro-life, but actually be pro-life by passing an ordinance.”
“Those are human beings, just as human as me and you,” Dickson told KLTV after the Tenaha vote, “and all we are saying here is in our cities, we do not want those kids to be killed.”
The Tenaha ordinance states that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong in its Roe v. Wade decision, and that unborn children are living human beings deserving a right to life.
“Abortion at all times and at all stages of pregnancy is declared to be an act of murder with malice aforethought,” it states.
In June, Waskom became the first city to ban abortion in abortion through a sanctuary city ordinance, declaring itself a “sanctuary city of the unborn.”
“Since we spearheaded the initiative, many other cities have reached out to us wanting to follow in the footsteps of Waskom by outlawing abortion in their own city and declare themselves a Sanctuary City for the Unborn,” Dickson’s website, Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, stated.
The KLTV report said lawyers have expressed skepticism over whether the laws are constitutional, and the towns could face legal challenges.
In July, the Texas town of Mineral Wells considered a similar pro-life ordinance, but the city council rejected it after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened a lawsuit.
The Texas city ordinances and other municipal resolutions recognizing sanctuary status for the unborn come as several blue states controlled by Democrats have passed radical abortion expansion laws this year. Meanwhile, Republican-controlled red states have conversely enacted sweeping pro-life legislation.
They also come as the entire field of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls has pledged support for forcing taxpayers to fund abortion – including abortion up to birth and infanticide.
Outside of Texas, the City Council of Roswell, New Mexico, passed a resolution in March giving the unborn sanctuary status.
The Yadkin County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina passed a resolution in August declaring sanctuary status for the unborn and recognizing life as beginning at conception.
The city council of Riverton, Utah, passed a resolution in May declaring the city a “sanctuary for the unborn.”
Also in Utah, the Utah County Commission unanimously passed a resolution supporting protections for unborn children in June, and the city councils in Highland, Utah, and in Springdale, Arkansas, also passed similar pro-life resolutions this summer.
A 13-year-old girl pleaded with the Raleigh, North Carolina, city council at a June meeting to prohibit abortion and declare sanctuary status. Addison Woosley was jeered and shouted down by some adults in the room but persisted in her plea.
“Abortion should be illegal because it’s murder,” she said. “The definition of murder is the killing of one human being by another without justification and often with intended malice.”
Texas Right to Life has applauded the cities in its state for taking “bold action” to protect the unborn.
After the most recent ordinance passed in Gilmer, the group said via its blog, “Texas Right to Life anticipates that more cities will soon follow Gilmer‘s example and prevent the violence of the abortion industry from spreading to their communities.”