Lubbock County, Texas, joins a group of other rural Texas counties that have voted to ban women from using their roads to seek abortions.
This comes after six cities and counties in Texas have passed abortion-related bans, out of nine that have considered them. However, this ordinance makes Lubbock the biggest jurisdiction yet to pass restrictions on abortion-related transportation.
During Monday’s meeting, the Lubbock County Commissioners Court passed an ordinance banning abortion, abortion-inducing drugs and travel for abortion in the unincorporated areas of Lubbock County, declaring Lubbock County a “Sanctuary County for the Unborn.”
The ordinance is part of a continued strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade as the ordinances are meant to bolster Texas’ existing abortion ban, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides or “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
The ordinance, which was introduced to the court last Wednesday, was passed by a vote of 3-0 with commissioners Terence Kovar, Jason Corley and Jordan Rackler, all Republicans, voting to pass the legislation while County Judge Curtis Parrish, Republican, and Commissioner Gilbert Flores, Democrat, abstained from the vote.
It’s civilian enforced. So say a person overhears a woman telling her friend that they are leaving tomorrow to drive to another state for an abortion. The person can sue her (and anyone helping her) for violating this law. If they win, they get a chunk of cash and the “satisfaction” of knowing they are oppressing women.
It’s designed to not only deter women from getting abortions, but to deter people from helping them. If you were in Texas and a friend asked you to drive her to get an abortion in another state, you’d need to weigh the possibility of being sued. You might decide it was too much of a risk for you and not help. And that’s what they are hoping to achieve.
So what I’m hearing is that we need to start some campaign to make new language for abortion that will obfuscate whether you’re going for an abortion or going for tourism reasons to a state that will help. Which states around texas will still offer medical care to a pregnant woman?
I’m sure that will spring up, but it shouldn’t be necessary. Also, all it takes is a woman telling one friend who either turns on her or who spills the beans to someone else.
Ahh, the good old Blockwart method. Worked well in Nazi Germany. Just in case you had doubts where the Republicans are getting their ideas from.