Photo by Noah Dawson
No action was taken on either of two ordinances seeking to implement abortion restrictions during their May 28th meeting. Instead, they scheduled a public hearing on the version presented by petitioners to take place on June 11th. They also asked the committee to consider an amendment to their proposed ordinance.
The two proposed amendments were to include mention of Amarillo’s Hope Choice Pregnancy Center in the ordinance and to modify the language prohibiting abortion trafficking to instead reflect existing state law prohibiting aiding or abetting the inducement of an abortion.
The members of the petitioning committee expressed support for naming Hope in the ordinance but expressed that they would have to consult with their attorney on the change in wording on the abortion trafficking provision.
In addition to the ordinance presented by petitioners, the council discussed an alternate ordinance which would have implemented state law restrictions on abortion into the city's municipal code. No action was taken on that ordinance.
The council has 30 days to take action on either the petitioned for ordinance or an amended version of the ordinance. If they do not approve the ordinance in the form presented by the petition committee, the committee has 20 days to request that the ordinance be placed on the November ballot.
The meeting took over 7 hours, much of which was dedicated to public comments on the topic.