Though The Lone Star State is pro-life, many women are still traveling to neighboring states like New Mexico to have elective abortions.
With that in mind, along with the fact that a provision in the Texas Heartbeat Act specifically allows for cities and counties to further restrict abortion, Cochran County recently became the third Texas county to pass an ordinance banning the use of its streets, highways, and airports for such transportation.
"We're seeing that the abortion industry is still alive and well here in our state, and they are doing everything they can to take people across the border," reports Mark Lee Dickson, founder of Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. "There's these groups, abortion assistance groups, funding these abortions and abortion travel."
Regarding the abortion travel ordinances, he asserts that police officers will not be stopping vehicles at random to question their occupants about why they are traveling; enforcement will be similar to the private mechanisms used to apply Texas' other pro-life laws.
"If there's a violation of the ordinance, then a lawsuit can be filed against those who are involved in abortion trafficking," Dickson explains. "This doesn't restrict the travel at all. All it does is penalize those who are actually violating the law."
The Cochran County ordinance does not allow for any lawsuit to be filed against the mother of the unborn child; it only allows for actions to be taken against those who are assisting her in the killing of her child — when they cross the unincorporated area of Cochran County for abortion trafficking.
Following Mitchell and Goliad Counties, Cochran is the 53rd political subdivision in Texas to have outlawed abortion. Lea and Roosevelt Counties in New Mexico, the first and second to pass "Sanctuary County for the Unborn" ordinances in the United States, share a border with Cochran County.
Dickson believes this approach should be adopted all throughout the country.
