Mason, Ohio, Becomes 41st City to Outlaw Abortion Within Its Limits

Fetus in Utero
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Dr. Susan Berry

The city of Mason, Ohio, became the 41st Sanctuary City for the Unborn last week when its city council voted to outlaw abortion within the city’s limits.

Mason is the second Ohio city to become a sanctuary city for the unborn, following Lebanon, Ohio, which outlawed abortion in May.

“The Mason Ordinance outlaws abortion within the city limits of Mason, Ohio and treats the abortion pill as contraband,” Mark Lee Dickson, director with Right to Life of East Texas, and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, explained to Breitbart News in a statement.

“The penalty for violating the ordinance is up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000,” he added. “The penalties are immediately enforceable. It is also worth noting that, unlike the ordinances passed in Texas, the Mason Ordinance does not contain a private right of action.”

According to the Mason ordinance, provided by the Columbus Dispatch, the City Council finds “human life begins at conception,” “abortion is a violent act which purposefully and knowingly terminates an unborn human life,” and “unborn human beings are entitled to the full and equal protection of the laws that prohibit violence against other human beings.”

The ordinance adds “any person who performs or induces an abortion,” other than the pregnant woman, or who “aids or abets an abortion” within the Mason city limits will be considered a criminal or felon.

“Many objections were raised concerning the Constitutionality of this ordinance, but those concerns were addressed and Mason, Ohio became the 41st city in the nation to pass an ordinance outlawing abortion within their city limits,” Dickson stated.

A fact sheet sent to Breitbart News by Dickson emphasizes the Mason ordinance outlawing abortion:

… does not go against Roe v. Wade (1973), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) or any Supreme Court ruling, but works within those rulings and current federal and state laws to go as far as we legally can go to prohibit and restrict abortion access under the confines of the undue burden standard which was set by the United States Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

As has been the case for seven cities in East Texas that passed the ordinance last year, If the city of Mason faces a lawsuit as a result of the adoption of its ordinance, Attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell, the former Texas Solicitor General, is willing to represent the city at no cost to the city and taxpayers.

Mitchell represented the other cities when they were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and, after three months, the ACLU withdrew its lawsuit, without cost to the cities or the taxpayers, “and abortion remains outlawed in every city which was sued,” the fact sheet noted.

The first sanctuary city to pass the ordinance was Waskom, Texas, in June 2019.

In August, Dickson, who is also a pastor, told Breitbart News the focus on local communities making decisions for themselves about whether they want the ending of unborn lives occurring in their midst has been a game-changer.

“For so long, we’ve put our focus at what happens in Austin, Texas, and what happens in Washington DC, as the be all and end all,” he said during a phone interview. “And when I really became convinced – the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was the realization that, if an abortion facility moves to Waskom, Texas, that would not be Austin’s problem, and it wouldn’t be Washington, DC’s problem. It would be Waskom’s problem. And that Waskom had this obligation to do something.”

The cities of Nazareth and Cisco, Texas, also became Sanctuary Cities of the Unborn in October.

“In about 2 1/2 years 41 cities have passed enforceable ordinances outlawing abortion within their city limits,” said Dickson. “It has been a great year, with 24 of those cities passing ordinances this year alone. I am confident we will be seeing many more cities join that number in the months to come.”

A focus on pro-life legislation at the most local level of towns and cities has also been adopted by national organization Students for Life of America (SFLA).

While considering the possibility that, in the Dobbs. V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court may overturn its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the millennial pro-life group launched its Campaign for Abortion Free Cities.

“Since the Dobbs case was picked up by the Supreme Court, people have been talking a world without Roe for the first time with real hope, and Corporate Abortion has been in a frenzy, trying to hold on to their power and profits,” SFLA President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement to Breitbart News.

“But Students for Life was founded as a post-Roe organization 15 years ago because we knew this day was coming,” she added. “The change coming demands the recruiting, equipping and empowering of people all across the country today so that we can help women and their children, born and preborn, right where they are.”

Hawkins said with the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities her organization is providing the help needed at a very local level.

“We are building bridges between women in need and those in their communities who want to help, because in a Post-Roe America, we want to protect life from conception to natural death,” she said. “Pro-life Americans every day are doing the work of helping mothers and their children, born and preborn, and we want to be sure that everyone knows we want to help.”

Dickson said that, although the Biden administration “committed to abortion access in every single zip code,” such a reality “is not what the majority of cities in America want.”

“The majority of small-town America sees and understands that for the last 48 years abortion has hurt women and ended the lives of their children, and they want no part of it,” he asserted.

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