On Monday, July 21, the City Council of Hooks, Texas (pop. 2,769) passed an “Ordinance Outlawing Abortion, declaring Hooks a Sanctuary City for the Unborn” in a unanimous 5-0 vote. The vote made the City of Hooks, located on Interstate 30 and United States Hwy 82, between the cities of New Boston (pop. 4,686) and Leary (pop. 605), the 76th city in the nation and the 59th city in Texas to pass an ordinance banning abortion.
The passage of the measure also made the City of Hooks the first city in Bowie County, and the fifteenth city in the Tyler-Longview Area Region to pass a ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’ ordinance. Other cities in the region to have passed such ordinances include: Athens (pop. 13,503), Lindale (pop. 6,923), Rusk (5,664), Gilmer (pop. 5,216), Waskom (pop. 2,190), Naples (pop. 1,378), Big Sandy (pop. 1,343), Omaha (pop. 1,021), East Mountain (pop. 899), Wells (pop. 853), Murchison (pop. 606), Avinger (pop. 444), Gary (pop. 335), and Poynor (pop. 314).
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
The ordinance was placed on the council agenda in Hooks after Texas Congressman Nathaniel Moran had a discussion with Hooks Mayor Marc Reiter about Texas’ efforts to further protect pregnant mothers and their unborn children from the danger of abortion. Mayor Reiter saw the value of taking action at the local level and the measure was moved forward, with the entire Hooks City Council voting in favor of the measure in a unanimous 5-0 vote. The five council members voting in favor of the measure included: Gary Wright, Jimmy Cochran, Cosman Jones, Jeff Parker, and Rhett Tuggle.
After the vote, longtime Hooks resident and Southern Baptist minister Roy Ford shared, “Abortion is a moral violation of God’s Word. The baby is NOT THE WOMAN’S BODY, because the blood type is often different. Human life is the ultimate of God’s creation so it is one of the things that glorifies Him. Thank God for the five men of the Hooks, Texas City Council. They unanimously voted tonight for Hooks to be a SANCTUARY CITY FOR THE UNBORN.”
The six provisions of the Hooks Sanctuary City for the Unborn Ordinance: (1) prohibit performing an elective abortion and aiding or abetting elective abortions within the city limits of Hooks, (2) prohibit elective abortions on residents of Hooks – regardless of where the abortion takes place, (3) prohibit abortion trafficking through the City of Hooks, (4) prohibit the mailing of abortion-inducing drugs into the City of Hooks, (5) prohibit criminal organizations from doing business inside the city limits of Hooks, and (6) prohibit through or in the City of Hooks the transportation and disposal of the remains of unborn children who have been killed by an elective abortion across state lines and carried into Texas by waste management companies.
The Hooks Sanctuary City for the Unborn Ordinance is enforced the same way as the Texas Heartbeat Act — through a private enforcement mechanism. The ordinance reads, “Any person, other than the city of Hooks, and any officer or employee of the city, has standing to bring and may bring a civil action against any person or entity that: violates any provision” of this ordinance. The ordinance, which has a six-year statute of limitations, is clear that “a civil action … may not be brought: against the woman upon whom the abortion was performed or induced or attempted to be performed or induced in violation of this ordinance, or against a pregnant woman who intends or seeks to abort her unborn child in violation of this ordinance.”
In addition to providing protections for pregnant mothers and their unborn children, the ordinance also educates about the Thriving Texas Families Program and directs people to the Texas Pregnancy Care Network website and The Pregnancy Network website operated by Human Coalition to be connected to these services.
Bowie County Republican Chairman Gary Singleton shared, “Texas is a pro-life state and the Republican Party, like Governor Abbott and Senator Hughes, believe that there is more work to be done to protect pregnant Moms and their unborn children in Texas. I want to thank the City Council for unanimously voting yes and I hope to see every city in the county and the county itself follow in their footsteps.”
With the Hooks City Council having led the charge, other Bowie County cities which could consider the ordinance in the future include: Texarkana (pop. 37,679), Wake Village (pop. 5,897), New Boston (pop. 4,686), Nash (pop. 4,230), De Kalb (pop. 1,769), Maud (pop. 1,026), Red Lick (pop. 956), Redwater (pop. 851), and Leary (pop. 605).
During the 2024 Presidential Election, President Donald J. Trump carried Bowie County with 73.88% of the vote. During the Republican Party Primaries in 2018 and 2022 Republican voters in Bowie County expressed their strong pro-life beliefs in two different ballot propositions. During the 2018 Republican Party Primary, voters had the opportunity to vote on proposition #7. This proposition gave voters the chance to voice their opinion if they were “In Favor” or “Against” the following statement: “I believe abortion should be abolished in Texas.” In Bowie County, out of 7,673 votes, 5,912 (77.05%) voted in favor of the pro-life proposition and 1,761 (22.95%) voted against. In addition to this, during the 2022 Republican Party Primary, voters had the opportunity to vote on proposition #5. This proposition gave voters the chance to voice their opinion if they were “In Favor” or “Against” the following statement: “Texas should enact a state constitutional amendment to defend the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, from fertilization until natural death.” In Bowie County, out of 7,939 votes, 7,273 (91.61%) voted in favor of the pro-life proposition and 666 (8.39%) voted against.
Hooks becoming a Sanctuary City for the Unborn was not the only breaking pro-life news story to take place in East Texas this week. Texas’ latest city shared headlines with news of the permanent closure of the Planned Parenthood Tyler Health Center in Tyler, Texas. While the facility did not itself perform abortions, they did serve as a referral facility to the Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in Kansas. The closest abortion facility to both Hooks and Tyler is the Planned Parenthood Pittsburg Health Center in Pittsburg, Kansas – where preliminary Sanctuary City for the Unborn efforts are currently underway. Those who are interested in seeing their city or county pass an ordinance, regardless of their location, are encouraged to sign the online petition at www.
LifeNews Note: Mark Lee Dickson lives in Texas and is the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative.
The post Texas Town Becomes 76th City Nationwide to Ban Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Mark Lee Dickson
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.lifenews.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
