Lubbock Voters Pass Extreme, Unconstitutional Ban Declaring Abortion 'Murder'

The ordinance is part of a broader effort to restrict already extremely limited abortion access, and its influence can be seen in some of the bills currently moving through the Republican-dominated Texas legislature, most notably in a bill that would ban almost all abortions. That bill, like the ordinance that passed in Lubbock, includes a provision that gives private citizens the right to enforce its provisions. “It’s a clear attempt to find an end-run around the Constitution,” Tigner said.

The passage of the ordinance is the culmination of a years-long effort by an emboldened and increasingly radicalized anti-abortion movement to encourage towns and cities in Texas to pass abortion bans and in some cases, criminalize the work of abortion providers and reproductive justice organizations and advocates, an effort that has been led by the pastor and anti-abortion activist Mark Lee Dickson. The push behind the ordinance gained steam when a Planned Parenthood clinic opened in Lubbock in 2020, replacing a clinic that had been forced to close in 2013 after Republicans in the state passed laws restricting abortion clinics’s ability to operate. While the city’s council declined to take up the ordinance due to a belief that it was unconstitutional and unenforceable and would mire the city in a costly legal challenge, anti-abortion activists had gathered enough signatures to put the ordinance up for a vote.

After the ordinance passed on Saturday, Dickson demanded that the newly opened Planned Parenthood in Lubbock, which recently began offering medication abortions according to its website, stop providing abortions. “Now that the voters have spoken, we expect Planned Parenthood to respect the outcome of this election and cease providing abortions at its Lubbock clinic,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

It’s unclear what the short-term implications are for the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lubbock, which, according to its website, recently began providing medication abortions. (Jezebel reached out to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, and will update this story with their response.) In a statement released on Saturday, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas wrote that it is “committed to its patients and will follow legal restrictions as required.” “We are committed to expanding access to abortion and will provide abortion services when possible in Lubbock,” wrote Sarah Wheat, the Chief External Affairs Officer for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. She added, “We want Lubbock residents to know: Our doors are open and we will continue to advocate for our patients, no matter what.”

According to one legal scholar, due to the nature of the ordinance, any legal challenge would have to be initiated by a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood. Via the Texas Tribune, which wrote about the ordinance before it passed:

Richard D. Rosen, a constitutional law professor at Texas Tech University, said the proposed ordinance tries to make a “clever end run around Roe.”

Because local officials wouldn’t enforce the prohibition if it’s passed, ordinance proponents say there’d be no one for abortion providers to sue to stop the ban from taking effect. Instead, Rosen expects a private citizen would sue Planned Parenthood and the legal fight would go from there.

Rosen expects the ordinance would be “DOA” — dead on arrival — in the courts, but it might cost a lot of money for abortion rights proponents to defend.

“As long as Roe is good law, I think these suits will ultimately fail, but it [could make] abortion providers … expend money for attorneys’ fees, and it takes time,” Rosen said.

As Tigner put it to Jezebel, as the ACLU figures out a response, “all options are on the table.”