City Secretary Stephanie Coggins (center) accepts the petition to make Amarillo a Sanctuary City for the Unborn as Mark Lee Dickson (left) and Jana May (center-right) look on./Photo by Noah Dawson
A recently circulated petition asking the Amarillo City Council to declare Amarillo as a Sanctuary City for the Unborn has been approved, according to the petition’s main organizer.
Mark Lee Dickson, a pro-life activist who has been heavily involved in the petitioning process, announced on social media on Wednesday that the petition has been ratified and accepted by the City of Amarillo. According to Dickson, petition organizers were notified by a reliable source and the City will soon be making an announcement confirming the status of the petition.
If the petition is indeed approved, the Amarillo City Council then will be required to take the item up for a vote. If the City Council chooses not to adopt the ordinance, then the organizing committee will have the item placed on the ballot before Amarillo voters — likely this November.
Several cities across Texas have adopted similar ordinances, including Lubbock, which became a Sanctuary City for the Unborn following a citywide vote on the ordinance. The version of the ordinance proposed in Amarillo would not only declare the city as a Sanctuary City for the Unborn, but would also codify a private enforcement mechanism for the ordinance in the city code and would create penalties for “abortion trafficking” on Amarillo roadways.
The petition committee was required to collect more than 5,700 signatures to have the item placed before the City Council. According to Dickson, the committee was able to collect just above 10,000 signatures.