Last summer, Waskom, a city in Texas with under 2,000 residents, passed an ordinance claiming to ban abortion. In the months that followed, a handful of other Texas towns passed similar ordinances, declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn.”While unconstitutional, the ordinances sowed confusion among residents who were unsure of their legal rights. In February, two of those groups, the Lilith Fund and Texas Equal Access Fund, sued seven of the towns that passed the measures. The abortion rights organizations argued that the ordinances violated their rights to free expression and association protected by the First Amendment and, by designating them criminal, illegally imposed punishment without a fair trial. On Tuesday, the ACLU of Texas, which represented the groups, said the lawsuit had already achieved its goal: All seven towns have since amended their ordinances and no longer refer to reproductive rights groups as criminal organizations.

Source: Huffington Post May 28, 2020 15:11 UTC