Citizens petitioning to establish Amarillo as a ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’

KFDA
By Sydnee Batzlaff
Published: Jan. 9, 2024 at 8:00 PM GMT-7

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The Amarillo City Council held its regular meeting today and one item not on the agenda was the Sanctuary City for the Unborn.

Last month, council held a work session discussing possible ordinances to further protect the unborn.

The plans were to have public readings of a draft this month. However, things have changed because a petition has been brought forward.

Last week, a group of Amarillo residents filed paperwork to initiate a petition forcing council to vote on an 18-page ordinance establishing Amarillo as a Sanctuary City for the Unborn. This petition includes parts the pro-life council does not agree with, such as travel bans.

“This ordinance is all private right of action. It is something that lines up with SB8 and a lot of what you’re seeing at the state level, and so I think you’re still seeing council struggle and wrestle with the fact that many of those laws were already written in at the state level. And so we’re trying to rely on the balance of what is needed locally,” said Mayor Cole Stanley, City of Amarillo.

As for the process, according to the Amarillo City Charter, the petition must receive signatures of at least five percent of registered voters by April 29, 2024.

The City Secretary’s office would then have 21 days to verify the validity of the petition and then it would be presented and submitted to council.

“We’ll have a public hearing so that we can hear from our citizens that want to speak on the topic and then council will have a chance to take action on that,” said Stephanie Coggins, city secretary, City of Amarillo.

Coggins says council would have 30 days to take action.

“Once they take action they can approve it, in which case it would become law, they can deny it or they could approve an amended version,” said Coggins.

If denied or amended, the initiating committee can request council put it on the ballot for citizens to vote on.

“I believe council would probably put it forward to allow a vote, now I don’t know if council would be comfortable voting it in. Obviously, you saw the work sessions where we are not in a consensus for the fullness of that ordinance, so I don’t believe it’d be something we would reject. I think we all would want to hear what the popular vote would speak to,” said Mayor Stanley.

The City Secretary says if this does go to voters it would most likely be on the ballot for the November election.

Mayor Stanley says it’s essential for citizens to do their part and educate themselves.

“It’s important to participate in civics and knowing what’s going on in your community and being a good not only taxpayer, but voter. And so the mayor and council cannot educate everyone on every item. We are trying and it is a complicated, complex issue. And so to legislate the hardest topic in the history of this nation, being abortion at the local level, is not an easy task,” said Mayor Stanley.