Abortion

Ohio Might Get a Second ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’

In Mason, Ohio, the city council is considering an ordinance outlawing abortion—with the help of a Texas anti-abortion group.

[Screengrab of a packed city council meeting on local news, and a chyron says: Abortion ordinance debate - Mason.
The anti-abortion ordinance will have a second reading at the Mason City Council's next meeting. WLWT/YouTube

With “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinances in over two dozen cities in Texas, the city of Mason, Ohio, is on its way to becoming the next municipality to enact an abortion ban.

The ordinance was introduced last week at a Mason City Council meeting, where four council members voted in favor of an abortion ban for the Ohio city. That was one short of the five members required to pass the ordinance as an emergency and skip a public referendum.

Mayor Kathy Grossmann supports the abortion ban but said she hoped it did not go to a referendum. Instead, the anti-abortion ordinance will have a second reading at the city council’s October 25 meeting, as Erin Glynn of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

This is far from the first time Ohio Republicans have taken aim abortion access. On top of restrictions on abortion providers, low-income people, and minors, the state bans abortions “based on” a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome and abortions after 22 weeks’ gestation. (Ohio lawmakers have always struggled with science.)

In this case, however, Mason is skipping directly to the end goal: banning abortion within city limits entirely—even though there aren’t any abortion clinics in the city anyway.

And Mason wouldn’t be the first Ohio city to do so—Lebanon’s city council voted unanimously to ban abortion in May. The Lebanon ordinance, like the proposal in Mason, declares it illegal to provide, aid, or provide money, transportation or instructions for an abortion within city limits.

If you’re thinking “so what?” then we’ve got one word for you: Texas.

In fact, the Mason City Council got a draft ordinance from Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, an initiative by Right to Life of East Texas, the Enquirer reported.

So even as other states dominate the headlines (and for good reason), we just wanted to let Ohio anti-abortion activists know that we’re watching them too.

This post was adapted from a Twitter thread.