A West Texas county on the border of New Mexico has passed an ordinance to become “a sanctuary county for the unborn.”
Cochran County commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance to prevent elective abortions within the county and the transportation of pregnant women seeking an abortion through or out of the county.
The ordinance began by noting, “The Cochran County Commissioners’ Court finds that human life begins at conception,” adding, “that abortion is a murderous act of violence that purposefully and knowingly terminates an unborn human life.”
“The Cochran County Commissioners’ Court finds that Texas men and women are being hurt and traumatized by abortion across our Texas-New Mexico border and sent back to Texas for our county and our cities to deal with the aftermath in our homes, schools, churches, and hospitals,” they claimed.
The ordinance explained that it would “prohibit abortion and abortion-inducing drugs in the unincorporated area of Cochran County” and do “as much as we can to stop abortion trafficking through Cochran County.”
Furthermore, “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly engage in conduct that aids or abets an elective abortion,” listing actions that include providing transportation, giving instructions on how to conduct an abortion, creating an online service to facilitate abortions, offering money for people to travel and get abortions, giving money to an abortion provider, and “[c]oercing or pressuring a pregnant woman to have an abortion against her will.”
The ordinance only applies to unincorporated areas in the county, and the commissioners court notes that “any incorporated municipality within Cochran County wishing to have similar protections for unborn children should make sure their cities have ordinances covering the area within their city limits.”
Wendy Davis, a former Texas state senator and current advisor for Planned Parenthood Texas Voters, denounced the trend of counties voting to become “sanctuaries for the unborn.”
“This is an effort, one by one by one, to create a statewide ban against travel to other states, literally creating a reproductive prison in the state of Texas,” she said, per The Texas Tribune.
Although Texas has banned abortion in most instances, bordering states like New Mexico have not. While other counties, such as Mitchell County, have passed similar ordinances, Cochran is the first to do so that actually abuts an abortion-permissive state.
Efforts to enable Texas women to obtain abortion procedures began immediately following the end of Roe v. Wade and the activation of Texas’ laws prohibiting abortion. One abortion provider moved its entire operation to New Mexico, and the Biden administration has funneled over $1 million in taxpayer funds to a Texas Planned Parenthood branch.
A recent investigation by The Dallas Express revealed that an AI chatbot funded by a coalition of abortion groups advised women seeking an abortion to flee the state or illegally order abortion pills to terminate their pregnancy.