In June 2019, the small Texas town of Waskom declared itself a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn.”
Waskom’s city council passed an ordinance that labels groups – like Planned Parenthood, NARAL and others – that perform abortions or assist women in obtaining them “criminal organizations.”
The ordinance borrows from a similar resolution passed in March by Roswell, New Mexico. Unlike the merely rhetorical Roswell resolution, however, the Texas law bans most abortions within city limits. There are no abortion providers in the town, so it is not clear how the town would enforce the ordinance. It might, perhaps, deter an organization from opening a clinic.
These “sanctuaries for life” join other sanctuaries popping up across the country that challenge federal law and how we understand its power and role in the states and the lives of Americans.
Gun owners’ rights
The rapid rise of anti-abortion sanctuaries has a precedent in the growth of so-called Second Amendment sanctuaries.
Second Amendment sanctuaries are partly a response to proposed “red flag” laws. Such laws authorize state courts to issue emergency protection orders, which allow police to temporarily confiscate firearms from a person who presents a danger to others or themselves.
Second Amendment sanctuaries are a booming business. Five states and at least 75 cities and counties have designated themselves as Second Amendment sanctuaries. They refuse to enforce background checks and to comply with emergency protection orders.
Sanctuaries are not new.
A sanctuary is a state, a county or a town where local officials refuse to enforce federal laws of one sort or another. Its earliest versions in the United States trace to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required the capture and return of runaway slaves, and the anti-slavery abolitionist movement of the 1860s.
Most recently, Sanctuaries for Life and Second Amendment sanctuaries build on the sanctuary cities movement that has flourished in response to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies.
Those in turn built upon a similar trend in the 1980s, when some churches declared themselves sanctuaries for refugees fleeing repressive Central and South American governments supported by the United States.
From those who wanted to free slaves to those who want to arm themselves, this history tells us that both liberals and conservatives have tried to thwart enforcement of some federal laws.