If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, do cities have flexibility if their states vote to make abortion illegal?
According to Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, cities do have a “wide range of powers they can draw on to try to safeguard and expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion.”
A city council member in Austin, TX, Jose Vela, put forth a resolution to decriminalize abortion in Austin, even if Texas enforces their anti-abortion laws. Other cities in Texas and across the US may be interested in doing the same thing. José “Chito” Vela says his proposal will direct police in Austin to make enforcement of the anti-abortion state law a low priority, and will prevent city money from being used to prosecute abortions.
He pointed out, “In Texas, you’re an adult at 17. We are looking at the prospect of a 17-year-old girl who has an unplanned pregnancy and is seeking an abortion [being] subjected to first-degree felony charges — up to 99 years in jail — and that’s just absolutely unacceptable.”
In September of last year, Texas approved a law that prohibits abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected (typically after six weeks). The Texas law is one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the US and is being used as a model for many other conservative states.
Prosecutors and attorneys all over the country are saying that they will not prioritize prosecution of abortion-related arrests. Some officials have even said they will not enforce state abortion bans.
Forty-nine cities have already passed laws to ban abortion even while it’s still legal, according to federal law. Many of these laws or ordinances are being challenged in court.
An opinion essay in the New York Times, included the following quote by the author, Steve Descano, an attorney in Virginia. “For hundreds of thousands of American women, access to an abortion soon may depend not only on which state they live in but also on how hard-line their local prosecutor is. That’s why I hope prosecutors across the country will join me in choosing to lead on behalf of the women we represent.”
He continued, “By making clear to law enforcement that we won’t prosecute women for making health care decisions, we can disincentivize these intrusions into the personal lives of the people we serve.”
