Councilman in Fort Worth suburb drops proposal for sanctuary city designation
A week after councilman Tag Green proposed that Keller become a sanctuary city for the unborn — meaning that abortions would be banned in Keller — he wanted the proposal removed from the meeting agenda.
Green said in an interview that he wants to wait to see what happens with lawsuits that the American Civil Liberties Union have filed against seven east Texas cities that passed sanctuary-city ordinances.
“It’s been put on hold. That’s kind of where things stand right now. I don’t anticipate anything happening before May,” Green said in an interview.
The ACLU of Texas sent a letter to Keller earlier this month stating that if the city moved forward with the proposal, there could be legal action.
The letter stated: “The Keller City Council should not adopt an ordinance that purports to make abortion access unlawful and declares organizations that support or provide abortion to be criminal entities. Doing so would not only violate the United States Constitution but also expose Keller to costly legal liability. It is lawful in the state of Texas for organizations to provide the reproductive services declared to be illegal in the proposed ordinance. But it is unlawful for the government to silence speech about and discriminate against pro-choice viewpoints, as the proposed ordinance would — the personal views of government officials cannot outweigh the constitutional rights of their constituents.”