Jana May was at a barbecue dinner for a local politician in Lubbock, Texas, in 2020 when she first heard about the wave of ironclad abortion laws being pushed in the state.
At the time, May, then president of the High Plains Republican women, had no idea what a sanctuary city was until a fellow dinner guest explained to her that movement was afoot to get one established in Lubbock. “When he did, I mean, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up,” May, 67, said.
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Across the country, 67 cities and seven counties have passed so-called “sanctuary cities for the unborn” ordinances — local laws that seek to ban abortions in the area. The means vary by community, with some blocking the shipment of drugs used to perform an abortion and others making it punishable to perform or aid in an abortion on their residents.
Lubbock, a town in northwest Texas of about 260,000 people, passed their own ordinance by citywide vote in 2021, a year after May’s dinner conversation.