Pro-Life Sanctuary Cities Are Saving Lives

In a recent opinion piece in The Hill titled “When pro-life is reduced to political theater, everyone loses” Jacob Lane complains about his hometown of Danville, Illinois, adopting a Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn ordinance in May 2023.

The Danville Ordinance, which I co-wrote with attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell, does not explicitly ban abortion, but simply requires compliance to the Comstock Act, federal statutes that prohibit the mailing or receiving of abortion-inducing drugs or abortion paraphernalia.

Referencing the Biden administration’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion from December 2022, Lane dismisses Comstock, stating, “The Justice Department has already said Comstock doesn’t apply when pills are shipped to states where abortion remains legal” and claiming that Danville’s ordinance was “dead on arrival.” Here, Lane pits himself against the wisdom of leading pro-life organizations and 20 state attorneys general who called the opinion a “bizarre interpretation.”

Lane says, “Illinois lawmakers have enshrined abortion as a fundamental right,” and, “No city council can change that,” disregarding that federal legislation trumps state laws and constitutions. No state can secure a right, privilege, or immunity to act in violation of federal criminal statutes as they are part of the “supreme Law of the Land” under Article VI of the Constitution.

Eighty-three cities and 11 counties across seven states have passed Sanctuary for the Unborn ordinances. Each ordinance is written to go as far as we can possibly go, or in some cases as far as the city officials are willing to go, to protect unborn children and their pregnant mothers from the tragedy of abortion. Lane sees cities and counties that pass such measures to be “experimenting with laws that overstep their authority and distract from real policy fights.”  He states, “local abortion bans don’t work. They clash with state law, they can’t be enforced and they make pro-life advocacy look unserious.”

Lane’s claims show his ignorance of the pro-life movement’s effectiveness.

In June 2019, Waskom, Texas, became the first city in the nation to adopt an ordinance outlawing abortion. The measure was meant to prevent an abortion facility in Louisiana from relocating to Waskom. The ordinance led to the passage of Lubbock’s ordinance in May 2021. Unlike Waskom, Lubbock had an abortion facility actively committing abortions. Before the ordinance went into effect, Planned Parenthood sued Lubbock. Two weeks later, the ordinance went into effect, Planned Parenthood complied, and the abortion giant lost its case in federal district court. This was the first time in the history of legal abortion in America that a pre-viability abortion ban went into effect that actually stopped abortions.

When Roe v. Wade fell in 2022 and abortion facilities left Texas, Whole Woman’s Health attempted to relocate just miles from the border in Hobbs, New Mexico. After Hobbs introduced its ordinance in November 2022, the abortion giant abandoned its lease and fled five hours away to Albuquerque. In October 2023, Lubbock County passed a county ordinance prohibiting abortion trafficking in unincorporated areas of the county. The Texas Observer reported, “When news broke that Lubbock County would be considering an abortion travel ban, every patient from Dallas canceled their appointments at the Albuquerque clinic.”

Lane says that both Danville and the national pro-life cause deserve better, but he fails to understand the role such local measures are playing in the overall effort to end abortion in America. Cities throughout Texas paved the way for the Texas Heartbeat Act, which historians argue played a significant role in overturning Roe. It was cities and counties throughout Southeastern New Mexico that helped inspire Project 2025’s strategy against abortion. Lane misses the bigger picture.

The goal of pro-life legislation is not to “persuade hearts and minds” but to protect unborn children and their mothers from a predatory abortion industry. These ordinances are not “hollow gestures” “destined to collapse in court,” but real-world solutions that make an actual difference in the fight against abortion in America. It’s not “performance” or “theater.” It’s loving our unborn neighbor. It’s keeping instruments of death meant to kill our smallest friends out of our communities. If that is not a “real policy fight,” what is? Filling potholes?

Danville city leaders continue to stand firm with no regrets for their decision. Earlier this year, CNN reported on the status of the Danville facility. Their report ended stating, “the Illinois clinic still hasn’t opened.” The facility has gained a reputation for claiming to be open when it has not been.

While Lane states that the Danville Ordinance “guarantees only costly litigation,” there has been zero litigation in the two years and four months since the measure’s passage. However, should the need arise, Mitchell, the attorney who co-wrote the law with me, has offered to represent the city at no cost to the city or taxpayers.

Mark Lee Dickson is the director of Right to Life Across Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative.