LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A Texas county near New Mexico — where abortion is legal — has banned helping people traveling to get an abortion in one of the newest ways conservatives are trying to restrict abortion access since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Lubbock County is the largest of four Texas counties that have now adopted a version of the measure, which would be enforced through lawsuits filed by private citizens against people who help women obtain abortions. It is the same legal mechanism Texas used to enact a strict abortion law in 2021 before the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state last year to ban nearly all abortions entirely.
Commissioners in the west Texas county adopted the measure 3-0 at a meeting Monday, rejecting some requests to postpone the vote.
The ordinance “has many legal problems,” said Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish, the county’s top elected official. “This ordinance, however, does not have a problem with its intent or the intent of those who are passionate about this.”
The measures expand on city ordinances rural Texas cities began passing in 2019 to ban abortion within their boundaries, even if the cities did not have a clinic performing abortions. Critics have attacked the campaign as an effort to intimidate women from seeking abortions in places where it remains legal.
Mark Lee Dickson, a Texas pastor who has led the efforts, praised the vote.
“Guys, I long for the day (when), coast to coast, abortion is considered a great moral, social and political wrong and is outlawed in every single state,” Dickson told commissioners.
No violations of the travel prohibition have been reported in the counties with similar measures already on the books. The measures would not punish women who are seeking the abortion but would present legal risks to people who help transport them to get the procedure.