Goldsmith Becomes 19th ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’ in Texas

The city council of Goldsmith, Texas, voted unanimously Wednesday to pass an ordinance that establishes it as a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn.”

The small city, an oil town located in Ector County, became the 19th city in Texas to ban abortion within its limits.

Mark Lee Dickson, the director of Right To Life of East Texas, founded the “Sanctuary City for the Unborn” initiative.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris recently said that they were committed to seeing abortion access in every zip code,” Dickson said, reported the Texan. He cited the White House statement on January 22 that Biden and Harris want to ensure “reproductive health care,” aka abortion, is accessible to everyone, “regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.”

“Goldsmith is the only incorporated city within the 79741 zip code,” Dickson added.

Since Biden took office, three towns have now outlawed abortion within their boundaries: Ackerly, Grapeland, and now Goldsmith.

The pro-life leader travels throughout the state, petitioning city councils to consider outlawing abortion within their limits. The towns that pass the ordinance are seeking to discourage abortion providers from establishing clinics within their boundaries.

At the end of January, the city of Grapeland, in Houston County, east of I-45, became the 18^th Sanctuary City for the Unborn. Dickson then traveled over 400 miles west to Goldsmith, as the Texan reported.

“Abortions may be able to happen elsewhere, but under the laws of the City of Goldsmith, if anyone performs one within the city limits of Goldsmith they will be breaking the laws… and there will be consequences,” Dickson said.

In June 2019, the city of Waskom, Texas, became the first in the nation to ban abortion, declaring itself a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn.”

As Breitbart News reported at the time, Dickson said:

Nowhere in the Constitution do we find abortion to be a constitutional right. As the ordinance continues to say, “Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), is a lawless and illegitimate act of judicial usurpation, which violates the Tenth Amendment by trampling the reserved powers of the States, and denies the people of each State a Republican Form of Government by imposing abortion policy through judicial decree.”

The city of Lubbock had been weighing the ordinance to outlaw abortion, but the city council unanimously voted against it. Dickson reported that, while the Lubbock City Council voted down the ordinance, the citizens of the city began a referendum initiative that has led to the ordinance being placed on the May 2021 ballot.

“I believe we will see abortion outlawed in 2021 in Lubbock, Texas,” Dickson said in a statement sent to Breitbart News in November. “It may be the most heated election in the history of Lubbock, Texas . . . but I do believe we will see abortion outlawed in Lubbock, Texas by vote of the people of Lubbock.”

Dickson reported the key points of the ordinance:

1. The ordinance immediately outlaws abortion within the city limits of Lubbock, Texas. This takes place IMMEDIATELY upon the passing of the ordinance. This is NOT DEPENDENT upon any future court decision (Section D defines what is immediately outlawed)
2. The ordinance has two major enforcement mechanisms. The public enforcement and the private enforcement mechanism. (Public Enforcement is Section E and Private Enforcement is Section F)
3. The public enforcement mechanism states that the fines which have been established by the ordinance may not be enforced by the city or any agent of the city unless Roe v. Wadeis overturned or the courts rule that cities can go ahead and start enforcing the fines which the ordinance establishes. This action is DEPENDENT upon future court decisions. (Section E)
4. Unlike the public enforcement mechanism, the private enforcement mechanism goes into effect IMMEDIATELY and is not dependent upon the overturning of Roe v. Wade or the future rulings of any court. What the private enforcement mechanism says is that if an unborn child is murdered by abortion within the city limits of Lubbock, Texas, any family member of that deceased child can sue the abortionist and anyone who aids and abets the abortionist for the death of their family member. Again, this action is IMMEDIATE. (Section F)

The ordinance targets abortion providers, not the mothers of the unborn.

“If every Mayor listened to their people we would see the majority of cities in Texas outlaw abortion,” Dickson said in a statement sent to Breitbart News. “This is not Washington D.C.’s job, this is not Austin’s job; when it comes to our cities this is our job! The time to act is not tomorrow but the time to act is now.”