As Austinites go to the polls to select their next mayor Tuesday, there will be no shortage of candidates to choose from. Eight candidates are vying for the city’s top position, most of them Democrats. But only one candidate can boast of being one of only two mayoral candidates in the entire nation to have attracted the endorsement of national pro-abortion group Emily’s List: Sheryl Cole, the current mayor pro-tem, who once served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood.
Cole, who currently occupies council seat 6, the seat set aside for African American council members under the city’s unofficial “gentlemen’s agreement,” is hoping to become the first black mayor in Austin’s history and its first female mayor in three decades. She has served on the city council since 2006, when she became the first black woman elected to the council in Austin history.
Cole, a real estate lawyer, has tried to keep her campaign largely focused on housing affordability, transit, and environmental issues. But her record of activism on behalf of Texas abortionists has earned her attention and accolades from national groups like Emily’s List and NARAL Pro-Choice America, along with criticism from pro-life groups throughout Texas.
Upon the passage of H.B. 2, the pro-life law that launched Texas gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis to fame after she tried to block the new safety restrictions with a filibuster, Cole joined with two other Austin City councilmembers in publicly supporting the federal “Women's Health Protection Act,” which would overturn safety regulations on abortion nationwide and make it illegal to pass further restrictions at the state level.
“I think it's very important that the women in Austin have full access to safe and legal reproductive services, and HB2 limits that,” Cole told KVUE. “We thought we needed to take an affirmative act to say that we did not support what the legislature had done.”
Cole was also instrumental in the passage of two hotly contested Austin city ordinances concerning pro-life Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). The first, which was later repealed after a lawsuit, required CPCs to post notices advising women that abortions and contraceptives were not offered on-site. The second, which is still being appealed, requires that they state whether or not they are supervised by a licensed medical doctor (most CPCs are staffed by volunteers and offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, neither of which require a doctor’s supervision under Texas law).
Robbie Ausley, former chair of the Texas abortion advocacy group Annie’s List and a Planned Parenthood board member who once described her efforts to open a multi-million dollar Planned Parenthood abortion center in South Austin as “a labor of love,” said Cole would be an asset to abortion supporters if elected mayor.
“Sheryl, as our next mayor, will continue to be a champion for all women having access to quality and affordable reproductive healthcare here in Austin,” Ausley said.
Abortion isn’t the only hot-button social issue on which Cole considers herself a leader, however. On her website, she boasts that as a city councilwoman, she has “championed equal rights for all individuals, and sponsored a resolution that was the first in Texas to support marriage equality.”
Cole also threw her support behind a transgender-backed initiative to make all single-stall bathrooms in the city gender neutral, so as to avoid those with gender identity issues having to choose which restroom to use based on their biological sex.
Cole said, “Austin has earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equity Index and we continue to work on improving conditions that are specific to the LGBTQ community.”
The polls in Austin close at 7:00 p.m. CST.