With abortion in Texas being outlawed from the moment of conception, Amarillo has become an abortion trafficking hub connecting abortion-free states like Texas to abortion-access states like New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. After much back and forth attempting to see their City Council approve such a measure, residents have now sent the Ordinance to the ballot for voters to decide this November.

The increase of Texas residents traveling out of state for abortion may be higher than one would expect. In New Mexico, abortion provider Amy Hagstrom Miller shared with KUT News, “Nearly all of the appointments made at Whole Woman’s Health in Albuquerque have been made by Texans.”

In an interview with National Public Radio, it was reported that 85% of abortion provider Alan Braid’s business at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Albuquerque comes from Texas. Braid told the news outlet that “abortion travel bans” like the one passed in Lubbock County and the one being discussed in Amarillo are having an impact on abortion centers throughout New Mexico. According to Braid, “They’re having higher no-show rates because people are afraid to drive through Lubbock and Amarillo.”

Courtesy: Mark Lee Dickson

Alamo’s website lists several abortion assistance organizations willing to help cover abortion travel expenses from Texas to New Mexico including Jane’s Due Process and Fund Texas Choice. Alamo has even advertised on their own Facebook, “Texas Teens – if you are under 18 and seeking an abortion, there is funding available. Abortions Care and all travel and expenses are FREE. Compassionate, Kind and Discreet staff. No Parental consent is needed in Albuquerque or Illinois.”

Colorado abortion provider Leroy Carhart IV revealed that 47% of his patients at CARE Colorado in Pueblo were from Texas, while only 31% were from Colorado. Carhart also shared that Texans “most often arrive by car, driving in from cities and towns all over the state, whether making the 13-hour trek from Austin or a five-hour trip from Amarillo,” with some of the traveling costs offset by abortion assistance groups like the Lilith Fund or Jane’s Due Process.

In Kansas, Planned Parenthood Great Plains president and CEO Emily Wales told KUT News “around half of all patients at Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas are Texans,” adding that the “heightened demand often surpasses the Wichita clinic’s capacity, and Texas patients are referred to the more distant Kansas City and Overland Park locations.”

The Amarillo ordinance seeks to close six major loopholes in Texas abortion laws. It would further outlaw abortion in the City of Amarillo by adding, into local law, the following provisions:

Prohibit any person from procuring or performing an elective abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy in the city of Amarillo, extending the private right of action from the point of a detectable heartbeat to the point of conception. (Section 8-6-2)
Prohibit any person from knowingly performing an elective abortion or knowingly engaging in conduct that aids or abets an elective abortion if the abortion is performed on a resident of Amarillo, regardless of the location of the abortion, regardless of the law in the jurisdiction where the abortion occurred, and regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion was performed or induced on a resident of Amarillo. (Section 8-6-3)
Prohibit any person from knowingly transporting any individual for the purpose of providing or obtaining an elective abortion, regardless of where the elective abortion will occur, as long as the transportation of such individual begins, ends, or passes through the city of Amarillo. (Section 8-6-4)
Prohibit abortion-inducing drugs from being manufactured, possessed, distributed, mailed, transported, delivered, or provided in any manner to or from any person or location in the City of Amarillo. (Section 8-6-5)
Prohibit criminal organizations who are violating federal laws prohibiting the mailing and receiving of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion paraphernalia from doing business in, or receiving grants from, the City of Amarillo. This provision recognizes any entity violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461-1462 by shipping or receiving abortion inducing drugs or abortion paraphernalia to be criminal organizations in violation of federal law. (Section 8-6-6)
Prohibit any person from transporting the remains of an unborn child who was killed by an elective abortion from any abortion provider into the city of Amarillo, or to dispose of such remains from any abortion provider within the city of Amarillo. (Section 8-6-7)

In August 2023, Senators and Representatives from across Texas signed a letter to support the passage of such ordinances, followed by a letter of support from Senators and Representatives across New Mexico. Of the five largest political subdivisions to pass Sanctuary for the Unborn Ordinances, four have provisions prohibiting abortion trafficking – making it the new “normal” for such ordinances.

The path to victory in Amarillo will not be without challenges. Groups like Women’s March are on the ground and committed to doing everything they can to preserve abortion access from Amarillo into states like New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. In fact, the Executive Director of Women’s March, Rachel O’Leary Carmona, moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Amarillo three years ago to “go where the fight is.”

A page devoted to Amarillo on their national website reads, “Anti-choice, anti-democracy extremists and the politicians beholden to them are energized and emboldened by the overturning of Roe V. Wade. Highways are the next antiabortion target. Amarillo is just one Texas town resisting.” The messaging continues, “A new ordinance, passed in several jurisdictions and under consideration elsewhere, aims to stop people from using local roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion. We are mobilizing in the wake of this latest attack on women and democracy itself.”

Courtesy: Mark Lee Dickson

Since last year, Women’s March has repeatedly sent out mass emails to their followers across the nation, encouraging them to do their part in discouraging the passage of the ordinance.

One local organization fighting the ordinance is the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance (ARFA), whose efforts have won praise both from Carmona and United States Representative Colin Allred. ARFA defines themselves as a “coalition of individuals, businesses, and organizations working to protect reproductive freedom in the Texas Panhandle.” Their website reads, “Our organization was founded in opposition to the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn ordinance, which, if passed, would prevent our fellow Texans from helping a pregnant person get an abortion across state lines – even if the abortion occurred in a state where it is legal.”

In March, ARFA’s members took part in a Women’s March rally outside of the Supreme Court of the United States when the high court heard arguments for the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. the FDA. While participating in that rally, ARFA member Lindsay London shared with the Washington Post that she “has driven women to Albuquerque and Denver to receive a surgical abortion” and “provides resources for people to obtain mifepristone” in Amarillo.

To add to the complexity of the battle, there is a concern that the District Attorney’s Office in Randall County (which makes up approximately half of Amarillo’s landmass) has been compromised. Aubrey Reinhardt Birkenfeld, the Assistant District Attorney for the county, has had a long history as a pro-abortion activist working for Planned Parenthood as a speaker and as a patient advocate. Birkenfeld has also volunteered with Jane’s Due Process, providing “intake and counseling of minors seeking a judicial bypass in the State of Texas” and partnered with organizations “such as TEA Fund, Lilith Fund, and West Fund to provide minors with financial assistance” for their abortions.

One of the two co-authors of the ordinance, Attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell has expressed his willingness to represent the city at no cost for any litigation that may arise from the passage of the ordinance. Earlier this year Mitchell represented former President Donald J. Trump in the Colorado ballot case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

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Mark Lee Dickson is a Director with Right to Life of East Texas and the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Amarillo Residents To Consider Abortion Trafficking Ordinance On November Ballot