Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to list Right to Life of East Texas, not Texas Right to Life, as the founding organization behind the “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn” initiative.
City leaders in Lebanon, Ohio haven’t given up on their quest to outlaw abortion, even after Ohioans approved an amendment protecting abortion rights in November.
During a Nov. 28 meeting, the Lebanon council unanimously passed a resolution that acknowledges “unborn children are legal and constitutional persons who are entitled to the equal protection of the laws.” The resolution defines unborn children as “the unborn offspring of human beings of the species homo sapiens from the beginning of the biological development of that human being, from fertilization, throughout pregnancy until live birth […].”
The resolution also calls upon U.S. Congress to enact legislation to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, saying it would guarantee “equal protection for unborn children nationwide and in Ohio.”
“The Fourteenth Amendment situated its equal protection guarantee within a common-law and statutory context that prohibited abortion,” the resolution reads.
Mayor Mark Messer authored the resolution, which was co-sponsored by council’s six members.
Lebanon has done this before, and the ACLU sued
This is far from the first time Lebanon has tried to legislate abortion care within city limits. In May of 2021, Lebanon’s council passed an ordinance that designated the city a “sanctuary city for the unborn,” making providing or facilitating an abortion a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine up to $1,000.
The anti-abortion ordinance originated from a Right to Life of East Texas campaign called “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn,” in which anti-abortion advocates help small cities draft ordinances to ban abortion outright. Lebanon was the first city in Ohio to adopt such an ordinance before the entire state was subject to anti-abortion legislation following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lebanon in May 2022, specifically targeting the ordinance’s vague language around criminal charges for those “aiding and abetting” another person’s abortion.
Related
Lebanon Removes ‘Aid and Abet’ Provision from Abortion Ordinance after ACLU Lawsuit
In February 2023, the city ended up agreeing in court to a stipulation to remove the “aiding and abetting” language from its ordinance, narrowing the scope of the ban to only barring health care providers from performing abortions or prescribing abortion medication in the city. Lebanon has no abortion care provider within city limits, and it never has. What remains of the law, which is still on the books, deputizes individuals to report cases of abortion care within city limits, making no exception for cases of rape or incest.
CityBeat reached out to all Lebanon city council members, the mayor and the city’s legal department, asking how the Nov. 28 resolution would be enforceable after the passage of Issue 1, but there was no response as of press time.
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This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 12, 2023.