Intimidation tactics did not sway the DeKalb City Council to take action on a proposed city ordinance during their regular meeting Tuesday.
The agenda item in question was whether to declare DeKalb a Sanctuary City for the Unborn. The item died due to lack of a motion from the council. Councilmember David Meadows was acting as mayor pro tem while sitting mayor Lowell Walker was out of town. Molly Blackmon, Brenda Smith, Bobbie McGee and Tom Ward were all in attendance.
Meadows abstained from taking any action because of his position as acting mayor, he told the Tribune.
Walker spoke with the Tribune in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.
“What really concerned me was the council mem-bers being intimidated as they were leaving the building. I know two of them were frightened and one had to actually get in a car and leave because their car was surrounded. And because of those actions, I have no intention of ever putting this on the agenda again,” Walker said. “The council is not going to be intimidated by outside forces.”
Councilwomen Blackmon and Smith were surrounded outside of their vehicles with those in favor of the measure questioning their morals and threatening to have them removed at the next election, Meadows added.
A sanctuary city for the unborn restricts access to abortion services within the city limits and prohibits clinics within the city limits from performing abortion services.
“I support the council,” Walker said. “It seemed to me it was redundant to state and federal law and there just wasn’t a need to act on their manifesto. A 16 page manifesto is not a resolution.”
The “Sanctuary City for the Unborn” movement was started by Mark Dickson, an anti-abortion activist from Lubbock, Texas.
The 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade made abortion a constitutionally protected right in the United States, declaring restrictive state regulations unconstitutional. The 2022 decision by the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling and returned the decision to allow or restrict abortion services back to state governments.
Texas immediately implemented a statewide ban on abortion services from clinics within the state.
The only exception to the statewide total ban is in instances where the pregnancy is life threatening to or to preserve major bodily functions of the mother.
A statewide law passed in 2021 banned abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, or as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. This law was passed prior to the overturning of Roe.
Walker added that, while DeKalb has a family health clinic, there is not a clinic nearby that performs abortions.
If passed, the ordinance would have banned mail order drugs that would induce abortions as well as the transportation of women through city limits on route to receive services and the transport of remains from services in other areas.
It would also have allowed for lawsuits to be filed against drug companies or anyone facilitating the appropriation of abortion services. The lawsuits could be filed by parents of underage females within the city limits who receive abortion services regardless of where the abortion takes place, as well as fathers of the aborted fetus.
The ordinance would not provide consideration for pregnancies as a result of rape or incest.
“It was a tough decision. But because of some of the ramifications and because of some things that were in the total bill and the liability for the city and officer enforcement of some areas, it put us in a predicament, in a place that we didn’t need to go to,” Meadows said.
Following the meeting, Dickson took to Facebook calling out DeKalb for not passing the ordinance and citing that Meadows “said he was disappointed in the Council’s decision.”
“Baloney, I never said that. That’s like me throwing the council under the bus and I would never do that,” Meadows said. “The council voted how they felt like they should have voted and I respect that.”
“They are making us sound like we are pro-abortion and that’s not true. We are all Christians on this council. We just don’t have the ability to enforce an ordinance like this in our city,” Meadows added.
DeKalb is the second city in Bowie County to take no action on enacting the ordinance. The ordinance died due to lack of a second at the September council meeting in Leary.
Hooks, New Boston and Avery passed similar ordinances earlier this year.
In other action, the council approved a slight rate in crease water rates and heard from department heads on business around the city of DeKalb.
