After Roe Decision, Austin May Lead the Way in Creating Abortion Sanctuaries

The city council of Austin, Texas, will soon weigh a resolution that may serve as a model by which Democratic-led cities could create “sanctuaries” to protect abortion providers and patients from prosecution in states with bans.Following the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the resolution would seek to effectively decriminalize abortions at Austin even after Texas’s trigger law outlawing the practice goes into effect next month. It would be the first local law of the sort in a state that has banned abortion. Dozens of district attorneys around the country have also vowed not to prosecute those who perform or seek abortions, including some in states with bans.After Friday’s high court ruling, two council members of Austin’s fourth district, José Vela and Vanessa Fuentes, urged the city council to schedule a special session to discuss advancing the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everybody Act.The resolution would recommend that the Austin Police Department make investigations into abortion providers and recipients their lowest priority after the state’s trigger law — which outlaws all abortion, including in cases of rape or incest — goes into effect.The resolution would also prevent police from using city funds to collect or provide information to other government agencies about “any abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act” or “conduct surveillance … for the purpose of determining whether an abortion has occurred.”“We are demonstrating City Council’s willingness to go on the offensive by fighting back for reproductive rights in a proactive manner,” Ms. Fuentes told the Austin Monitor.Texas state law prohibits city councils from ordering police to change policies, meaning they can only make recommendations. However, when asked how the police would handle the ordinance, a representative for the public information office said the city “is prepared to take the steps necessary to implement this resolution upon passage by City Council.”The Austin city council is expected to hold an emergency session to consider the resolution on July 18. A majority of the city council members — composed of 10 Democrats and one Republican — has expressed public support for it. Advocates of the resolution have said they do not intend for it to supersede state law. “It can’t do that,” Council Member Paige Ellis told the Texas Tribune. “But we can deprioritize the limited resources that we have as a city and within our police department.”An attorney for the anti-abortion group National Right to Life, James Bopp, tells the Sun that other cities around the country have “declared themselves sanctuaries for abortion,” in a similar fashion to Austin. The city council of Ithaca, New York — home to Cornell University — has passed an ordinance that would stop city employees from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into abortions. Similar ordinances have passed at Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California.A Seattle city council member, Kshama Sawant, has likewise proposed making the city a “sanctuary” for those living in states with bans. She has introduced a bill that would ask the police to avoid enforcing the bans passed by other states.Thus far, Austin is the only city within a state that bans abortion to consider taking up such a sanctuary measure.Outside of Austin, five other district attorneys in Texas have vowed not to pursue abortion-related criminal charges under Texas’s trigger law. A Republican state representative, Briscoe Cain, has in turn said he would introduce legislation that would allow district attorneys to bring charges against anyone in the state, even if local authorities don’t want that to happen.Other Democratic district attorneys around the country have also pledged to use “discretion” to avoid prosecuting abortions. A statement promising to refrain from enforcing abortion bans has been signed by 88 district attorneys. Milwaukee’s district attorney, John Chisholm, has said he will not attempt to prosecute those who “seek, provide, or support abortions” under a ban from 1849 that could be reactivated in Wisconsin in the aftermath of the end of Roe.Philadelphia’s district attorney, Lawrence Krasner, has also pledged to “protect all people’s reproductive rights,” calling on other Pennsylvania district attorneys to use “discretion” and “the bully pulpit” to do the same in the event that its Republican state legislature passes new abortion restrictions.Many signatories are in states without abortion bans. However, prosecutors serving in Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and other states that ban or severely restrict abortion have signed on as well.

After Roe Decision, Austin May Lead the Way in Creating Abortion Sanctuaries

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