The American Civil Liberties Union is suing seven cities in Texas that passed ordinances banning abortion businesses from operating within their jurisdictions.
The national ACLU and its Texas chapter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, on behalf of two abortion activist groups, Texas Equal Access Fund and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity.
Defendants named in the suit are the cities of Waskom, Gary, Joaquin, Naples, Rusk, Tenaha, and Wells, which have all recently voted to become “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.”
“The right to access abortion is protected by the United States Constitution. But in recent months, at the behest of anti-abortion activists, several east Texas municipalities have passed ordinances that claim to ban abortion,” the lawsuit says, in part.
“Although this section of the ordinances cannot be enforced while Roe v. Wade is in effect, the ordinances’ existence misleads residents of these cities as to whether individuals can in fact exercise their right to access abortion.”
The suit also argues that “while the ordinances concede that they cannot ban abortion under current law, several other provisions are in effect.”
“The ordinances deem Plaintiffs Texas Equal Access Fund (‘TEA Fund’) and Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity (‘Lilith Fund’), and other pro-choice organizations, as ‘criminal organizations,’” continued the suit.
“This means that Plaintiffs have been judged criminal without ever having been charged with a crime, much less afforded a trial.”
Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement released Tuesday that the ordinances were “part of a nationwide attack on abortion access.”
SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski
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