The City of Midlothian in Ellis County passed a measure at the end of February to become a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn.”
This marks the 51st municipality in Texas to implement such a measure, which protects unborn fetuses from conception, according to The Texan. Some Texas counties have passed similar measures, including Cochran County and Mitchell County, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The trend has been driven by the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, which aims to provide further anti-abortion protections beyond Texas’ abortion ban. Mark Lee Dickson, the founder of the initiative, said he was pleased to see Midlothian join the movement but hopes to see an expansion of the ordinance.
“While the Midlothian ordinance was a victory, as it did extend the private enforcement mechanism found in the Texas Heartbeat Act to the point of conception, the passage of the ordinance did not address two of the most common attacks against unborn children and their moms in a post-Roe Texas — the shipment of abortion-inducing drugs into the city and abortion trafficking across state lines,” Dickson told The Texan.
Midlothian Council Member Ed Gardner told The Texan he was open to addressing these suggestions.
Dickson expressed hope that Ellis County would pass a sanctuary measure of its own as it had previously committed to doing in a 2020 resolution, which he said would “strengthen the Midlothian ordinance substantially,” per The Texan.
The Midlothian City Council previously voted in opposition to the sanctuary measure in 2022. A new mayor and new council members, however, led to a successful vote of 5-2 on February 27.
Kimberlyn Schwartz, the director of media and communications for Texas Right to Life, praised the Midlothian measure.
“We celebrate this Pro-Life victory and applaud the Midlothian citizens who brought the ordinance forward and shepherded the policy across the finish line over the last couple of years,” Schwartz told The Texan. “Their work will help prevent the abortion industry from preying on their community as anti-Life activists become more vicious and aggressive.”
The measure was met with mixed reactions from the public, as several individuals spoke during the public comment component of the city council meeting and questioned whether the measure was necessary given the state statutes that had already been passed, reported Focus Daily News.
Cecil Pool said, “I strongly object to the Sanctuary City ordinance. To me, it seems to be simply pandering to an extreme political and religious ideology,” per FDN.
Another member of the public said, “I respectfully urge the council to vote no on this ordinance. … This item is something that should be voted on by all and not decided by seven members of the city council,” per FDN.
