Good overview of the group working to prevent an abortion travel ban in Amarillo.
Dubbed an “abortion trafficking” ban by anti-abortion extremists—as one of the policy’s progenitors put it, “The unborn child is always taken against their will”—the zealous measure encourages Texans to turn on each other in the name of “pro-life” values. At least 14 Texas localities, including Abilene and San Angelo, have passed some variation of the ordinance since 2021, but to anti-abortion advocates, Amarillo—a city of 200,000 in the mostly rural Panhandle that sits just an hour’s drive from New Mexico—is seen as a “trophy.”
After a “crash course” last summer on the details of the ordinance and the state of reproductive rights in Texas, [Amarillo resident Courtney] Brown was “horrified,” and she said her resolve grew tenfold. She and five friends—including a nurse, a lawyer, and an artist—banded together to fight the extreme proposal by creating the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance. The all-volunteer coalition is dedicated to educating and informing the city’s residents about the ordinance’s potential impact. They reached out to local business, religious, and community leaders, and hosted forums at churches and other events around town. And of course, they spent hours making their case to city council members.
“Talking about abortion in conservative Amarillo can lead to some pretty aggressive responses, so we started with some hesitancy,” said Brown. “But as we talked to more and more people, we became confident and comfortable to talk to anyone who would listen.”
The group felt like their hard work paid off. The Amarillo City Council first considered passing the abortion travel ban last October. The Alliance was persistent in persuading council members that the measure was not only an infringement on bodily autonomy and medical privacy but a federal constitutional violation of interstate travel and free speech rights. After months of heated debate, the council overwhelmingly rejected the measure this June.
“We made council members fully understand the major implications of what they were voting on,” said Brown. “If we can make leaders in a conservative town like Amarillo see reason and logic, it can happen anywhere.”
When dismissing the proposal, Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley said the city lacked the authority to put the policy in place. “Constitutionally, as a conservative, we always want to protect these civil rights and right of travel and right of speech. Freedom to move is greatly important. And we should never be in favor of anything that would ever limit that,” said Stanley at an earlier press conference.
But the fight wasn’t over. Anti-abortion activists, dissatisfied with the rebuke from council, collected 6,300 verified signatures to petition for approval to add the ordinance to the November 5 ballot, placing the fate of reproductive healthcare access in the hands of voters. The Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance now faces its biggest challenge yet: Convincing as many of their neighbors as possible that the ordinance will harm their community.
See here for some background. I consider this to be one of the more important races on the ballot, and I wish it were better known. Towards that end, I have done an interview with one of the co-founders of ARFA, which will run on Monday. Be sure to listen to it and give them some support.
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