San Angelo residents have been rallying to ban abortion in their city, and the issue will come down to voters in November, according to a report by The Texan.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines said he is pro-life and he would like to see abortion banned in the Lone Star State. He praised the work of activists who have worked hard over the past several months to get the issue on the ballot.
“I applaud every group of citizens who are working to cultivate a culture of life in their own communities,” Huffines said. “God bless these citizens for their activism. When I am governor, pro-life activists around the state will finally have a real ally in the Governor’s Mansion, and together, we will completely ban abortion in Texas.”
According to a Jan. 22 report by Go San Angelo, anti-abortion activists gathered 1,512 signatures for a petition to outlaw abortion. City Clerk Julia Antilley said is was a sufficient amount of signatures to bring the petition to the City Council.
A draft ordinance has stated that abortion would be outlawed within the city limits and that it would be declared murder. The draft also said that it would protect municipalities from abortion providers trying to locate within the city. After months of lobbying by pro-life advocates, in October San Angelo Mayor Brenda Gunter voted in favor of bringing this issue to the voters.
San Angelo residents discussed the question of whether to make their city a "sanctuary for the unborn" at a City Council meeting in September, according to Go San Angelo. Dozens attended meetings in September and October in support of the ordinance. The measure would mean that anyone who performs an abortion procedure or assists a woman with getting an abortion could be sued, but it would not punish women who get abortions.
There are currently no abortion clinics in San Angelo, which has a population of about 110,000. Almost 40 other cities in Texas have passed similar ordinances, the largest of which is Lubbock, which has a population of about 264,000.
On Sept. 1, 2020, the “heartbeat act” became law in Texas. The law prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, according to the Texas government website. This is typically six weeks into a pregnancy. There are exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest. While the law doesn’t include criminal sanctions or fines on people who violate the act, and actually prohibits the state from enforcing it, it does authorize civil lawsuits for those who perform an illegal abortion. The New York Times reported that in the first month the bill was in effect, the amount of abortions were cut in half from the same time period the year before.
Since 2015, there have been 370,521 abortions in the state of Texas, according to information from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Huffines, a former Texas state senator, will challenge Gov. Greg Abbott in the GOP primary on March 1. Other frontrunners on the Republican side include Allen West and Chad Prather.
