Amarillo City Hall/Photo by Noah Dawson
A group of Amarillo citizens has filed paperwork to initiate a petition seeking to pass an ordinance restricting abortions.
According to the paperwork filed with the city, the proposed ordinance is similar to Option C discussed by Amarillo City Council earlier this month. If passed, it would prohibit abortions within the city, abortions on residents of Amarillo, possessing abortion-inducing drugs in Amarillo, transporting someone seeking an abortion through Amarillo, and transporting or disposing of the remains from an abortion in Amarillo. It also designates organizations that mail or deliver anything intended for inducing abortions as a criminal organization and prohibits any such organization from operating in Amarillo. Similar to the Texas Heartbeat Act, the proposal would be enforced through a private right of action.
A majority of Amarillo City Council appeared to be skeptical of the similar Option C draft ordinance during a work session held earlier this month. The council instead seemed more interested in Option A, which only included a prohibition on possession of certain abortion-inducing drugs through a public enforcement mechanism.
Councilman Place 3 Tom Scherlen has been the most vocal opponent of going beyond the restrictions provided in Option A and has been particularly opposed to the private right of action. “I have a problem with neighbor turning neighbor in. I don’t believe in that at all,” said Scherlen.
Mark Lee Dickson, a vocal anti-abortion advocate and director of Right to Life of East Texas, has pushed back against the criticism of the private enforcement mechanism, noting that it is the same mechanism used by the Heartbeat Act. In a Facebook post from November, Dickson wrote that “the Republican Party of Texas stands behind the Heartbeat Act and all of the anti-abortion laws passed in the State of Texas - as should all Amarillo Republicans.”
In a more recent post celebrating the petition filing, Dickson wrote that “this initiative will compell the council a vote on outlawing abortion and abortion trafficking within the city limits of Amarillo.” However, Dickson had previously expressed opposition to using the petition mechanism for this issue. “It should not be pursued through the citizen initiative process for several reasons - the most obvious being that it is completely unnecessary.”
According to the Amarillo City Charter, the petition must receive handwritten signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in Amarillo within 120 days of filing. The petition was received by the city on December 28th, meaning the initiating committee has until late April to collect the more than 5,500 signatures needed. If successful, Amarillo City Council will be required to consider the ordinance. If the council declines to pass the ordinance, the committee may compel the city to place the item on the ballot of the next available election.
If this item makes it to the ballot, it will likely be on the November 2024 ballot, though it could theoretically make it on the May ballot, though the deadline to call such an election in May is February 16th.
Recent attempts at petition initiatives in Amarillo have not been successful. Most recently, a petition seeking to repeal the ordinance authorizing the issuance of tax notes to renovate the civic center was rejected despite having the needed number of signatures. According to the city, the petition was rejected due in part to the lack of “a valid Affidavit of Cictulator.” (That ordinance was later voided by the courts in a lawsuit by businessman Alex Fairly.)
According to the paperwork filed with the city, the committee members are Jana May, Cindy Price, Peggy Carter Thomas, Jacob A. Meyer, John Barrett, Steve Austin, Jennifer Roberts, Martha Sell, Alex Deanda, Connie Morgan, and Carol Ann Stewart.