Voters in Lubbock, Texas—the 11th-most populous city in the state and 83rd in the U.S.—overwhelmingly supported a May 1 initiative to prohibit abortion within the city limits, making it the country’s 26th sanctuary city for the unborn.
More than 62% of voters in the city of more than 250,000 residents voted in favor of making it “unlawful for any person to procure or perform an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy in the city of Lubbock, Texas.”
“Today is a victory for life and proof that the silent majority will still stand up for its Christian conservative values,” Rep. Dustin Burrows said after the results were announced.
Mark Lee Dickson, the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn movement, explained that the push to make Lubbock a sanctuary city was instigated by Planned Parenthood’s plan to build an abortion facility in the West Texas city.
“Planned Parenthood did come into Lubbock,” Dickson told The Christian Post. “They opened up, and they started performing abortions on April 15, just a few weeks ago. And Planned Parenthood also poured a whole lot of money into this election.
“They pushed a campaign to prevent this ordinance from being passed, and at the end of the day, they ended up losing that election,” he said. “Respectfully, I would congratulate them on their campaign effort. But since this was a landslide election, it’s very obvious that the people of Lubbock have spoken. I am expecting that Planned Parenthood will obey the laws of the city and not perform abortions within the city limits of Lubbock, Texas.”
The referendum vote comes after the mayor and the city council voted against the ordinance 7-0 in November under the reasoning that Roe v. Wade is the “law of the land” and must be followed. But since city residents had taken advantage of the Lubbock City Charter’s Initiative and Referendum process to bring the ordinance before the council, the ordinance still had the opportunity to be put to a public vote by Lubbock residents in the next uniform election.
“The Church of Jesus Christ banded together, stepped up to their role—their God-given role—and said we’re not going to let babies be killed in our city,” Jim Baxa, a member of West Texas for Life, said. “Churches banded together. There were 200 churches in the city of Lubbock working together to stand up for life. It’s excellent.”
The passage of the ordinance makes Lubbock one of some two dozen U.S. cities that have declared themselves a sanctuary for the unborn.
According to the abortion research group Guttmacher Institute, 536 pro-life bills have been introduced in 46 states since January, with 61 pro-life proposals already passed, putting 2021 on track to becoming the most pro-life year since Roe was decided.
Above: Lubbock, Texas
Photo: Timothy Swope/Alamy Stock Photo