As states prepare to entirely ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned, Democratic cities in Republican areas are committing to serve as “sanctuaries” for abortion rights. A recent poll finds that more than two-thirds of Americans support protecting a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.
According to a Wall Street Journal poll issued Thursday, 68 percent of Americans want the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case that established a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy as a constitutional right.
Local leaders in some of these states’ liberal enclaves claim they will not enforce the prohibitions.
José ‘Chito’ Vela, a city council member in Austin, Texas, has sponsored a resolution that would decriminalize abortion on a local level if the state outright prohibits it.
Texas already has some of the nation’s most draconian abortion laws. Abortion is currently outlawed when a fetal heartbeat is found, which occurs around the six-week mark of a pregnancy.
At this time in the first trimester, many women seeking abortions are unaware that they are pregnant.
According to Axios, Vela’s spokesperson Jenna Hanes said his office has been in contact with legislators in numerous Texas cities, including Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, who are interested in pursuing similar abortion-protection laws.
These’sanctuary cities’ are a play on the term’sanctuary cities,’ which was used to describe cities that refused to cooperate with the federal government in enforcing immigration laws.
Attorneys in New Orleans, Louisiana, Nashville, Tennessee, DeKalb County, Georgia (east of Atlanta), Fairfax County, Virginia, and Durham County, North Carolina have all declared that offenses involving abortion will not be priority.
Some have stated categorically that such prohibitions will not be implemented.
‘I will not shift my focus away from shootings, rapes, and carjackings to investigate women’s decisions about their own bodies,’ said New Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Roger Williams.
By the end of June, the Supreme Court will have issued its decisive ruling in Roe v. Wade, as well as other cases heard during its term.
In the meanwhile, the Court is looking into who leaked Alito’s draft ruling, with a particular focus on the nine Supreme Court Justices’ judicial assistants.
Overturning the 50-year-old Supreme Court abortion rule is expected to happen before the end of the month, with a 6-3 conservative majority and five of the six right-leaning Justices on board with the overturning.
It all started with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization lawsuit in Mississippi, which sought to outlaw abortions beyond the 15-week mark of a pregnancy in the state.
Only 34 percent of respondents in a recent WSJ poll supported banning abortion, while 43 percent were opposed and 21 percent said they were undecided.