Photo by Noah Dawson
Amarillo City Council voted to reject the sanctuary city for the unborn ordinance proposed via petition with two four-to-one votes on Tuesday night. The rejection now starts a clock giving the petition initiating committee twenty days to formally request for the item to be placed on the agenda.
The votes followed a multi-hour public hearing, where 32 spoke for and 26 spoke against. (An additional two people who signed up to speak against donated their time so that one of the others speaking against could read a full statement.) Following the hearing, there was nearly an hour of discussion between the council and petition committee representative Steve Austin.
Two versions of the ordinance were discussed, including the original and an amended form offered by the petition committee.
The amendments, however, were not enough to sway the council. Councilman Josh Craft noted he had concerns about language relating to the ordinance applying extraterritorially. Councilman Tom Scherlen noted that he felt the ordinance contained provisions that would drive employers away from the city. He likened the ordinance to communism and expressed that he wouldn't support it. Councilman Les Simpson said he felt the ordinance was on shaky legal standing and that he hadn't heard a compelling reason for any the city should seek to expand state law instead of bringing the issue to the legislature in Austin.
Mayor Stanley made one last plea to the petition committee to consider paring the ordinance down to one which would simply prohibit abortion in Amarillo and noted that he felt the city didn't actually have the jurisdiction to do what the ordinance seeks to do. Stanley’s request was rejected by the committee, with Austin saying that removing the trafficking/travel section would defeat the whole point of the ordinance.
Scherlen then made a motion to reject the amended ordinance, with Simpson providing a second. All members of the council with the exception of Don Tipps voted to reject the amended ordinance. The council then voted to reject the original version with an identical result.
The council chose not to take action on calling an election during their meeting.
Instead, the petitioning committee now has twenty days to formally request that the council do so. If they choose to have it placed it on the ballot, they must choose to put either the original or amended version to a vote. Notably, several members of the committee expressed their desire to avoid an election. However, with no deal reached, it appears they now have no other option.
If the item is placed on the ballot, it will be up for voters to decide in November if the ordinance goes into law. It will likely share the ballot with several proposed amendments to the Amarillo City Charter, which is currently being reviewed by a separate citizen-led committee.