City should skip acting on Sanctuary proposal

The hardest thing for anyone to do is often standing up for what is right when it is unpopular to do so. That’s the position the Clarendon City Council will find itself in Thursday night, May 9, when the subject of abortion will again be on the city agenda.

Abortion is illegal in Texas, and that isn’t going to change in the foreseeable future. Nationally, the Supreme Court now holds that abortion is a matter left up to the states, which is what President Trump wants, and that also is unlikely to change. But that’s not keeping activist Mark Lee Dickson from his crusade to “ban abortion” by getting cities to pass ordinances to become “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.”

The proposed ordinance Dickson sent to Clarendon city officials last month is 17 pages long, declares abortion to be unlawful except to save the life of the mother (rape and incest are not exceptions), bans abortion in the city, prohibits abortions being performed for Clarendon residents anywhere in the world, prohibits the sale and possession of certain drugs in the city, and seeks to prevent people from coming through Clarendon to get an abortion. Enforcement of the ordinance is basically left up to citizens policing each other and filing lawsuits against each other and/or abortion providers. That’s the short version. The entire proposal is posted on our website here: https://www.clarendonlive.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SCFTU.pdf. I encourage you to read it.

It is a far-reaching ordinance which seems to vastly overstep the city’s authority, but at the end of the day, it probably doesn’t even matter. The legality of abortion has been and will be decided by state and federal authorities. So, what’s the purpose behind all this?

Dickson is a longtime anti-abortion activist. According to his movement’s website, 69 cities have passed ordinances to “outlaw abortion” and become Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. Two of those cities have since reversed that action. He even has a bigtime attorney who has represented President Trump and who promises to represent the city if it gets sued. If Clarendon passes the Dickson ordinance, it will be just another notch in his belt. The real consequence though is the division the proposal creates in the community, the introduction of partisan politics into local government, and the waste of taxpayers’ money and resources as city employees deal with the drama Dickson brings to town.

Last month, city council members had only a few days before their regular meeting to be introduced to the Sanctuary ordinance. They heard from a couple of people who properly filled out the public comment forms, and then the council prudently took no action on the ordinance to learn more about it. Before this month’s agenda was even set, the city was bombarded with emails and phone calls – some of them hateful in their tone – seeking to get the item back on the agenda. City employees have been put under immense stress as they try to deal with this issue, they have had to take time away from their other duties, and legal opinions have been sought. How much has this cost the city already in terms of money and lost productivity?

Abortion has nothing to do with running the City of Clarendon. We elect our mayor and city council and then they hire employees to do important things that affect our daily lives. Their priorities are to make sure the streets are fixed, see to it the trash is collected, maintain a water system, and provide a host of other city services. At this time, they should be making sure the aquatic center is ready to open in a few weeks, working on implementation of the next downtown revitalization grant, figuring out how to deal with the TxDOT’s upcoming replacement of the US 287 bridge at Kearney Street (and relocation or replacement of the sewer line there), stopping vandals from destroying the rock walls of our city park, and the list goes on and on. These are the things that the city council should be focused on instead of wasting their time on an issue that the city literally has no control over.

But instead of dealing with our real city issues, Dickson and his followers are hijacking the city agenda, forcing people to take sides, creating stress where it is not warranted, and, in some cases, behaving in a markedly un-Christian manner. Sowing the seeds of division and hatred are not how Jesus would act. If you want to minister from a point of love and compassion and promote alternatives to abortion, that’s one thing. But if you want to whip up controversy, start acting hysterical, and ignite arguments between our residents, then you just need to take that show down the road. What would Jesus do? Not this.

Thursday’s city council meeting is scheduled to be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Mulkey Theatre. The city is expecting a large crowd to attend. Abortion is probably the single most controversial issue in America, with vocal groups on both ends of the spectrum and many people landing in some shade of gray in the middle. Regardless of what comments are made at the city meeting, it is unlikely that anyone will change their personal position on the issue.

The challenge for the city council is to remember that they represent all the citizens of Clarendon, regardless of their personal position on this issue, and to also be mindful that this is not a pressing matter requiring the city’s attention. There will be pressure to pass this ordinance, but the appropriate thing is for no action to be taken. Keep partisan politics out of our city business and let our council and city employees get on with the business of serving our community.