PAXTON- The Village Boards of Paxton and Hershey voted to place an ordinance on the November ballot that would make “performing abortions and abbeting an abortion illegal” within Paxton. Paxton is joining other towns in attempting to outlaw abortion within city-limits, including Arnold, Brady, Curtis, Hershey, Maxwell, Moorefield, Stapleton, Sutherland, Bellevue, and Wallace.

The effort to outlaw abortion in Paxton was led by resident William Forbes, a pastor at Paxton New Life Lutheran Church. He collected over 138 signatures of support in Paxton. However, the petition circulated by Forbes was not an official citizen initiative, so the Village Board decided to place the ordinance on the November ballot to allow voting-age citizens to choose whether or not to pass it. The measure in Hershey was brought before the village board as a result of a city initiative petition filed by three Hershey residents: Andrea Foster, Julie Larchick, and Myron Larchick. While the residents needed a total of 73 signatures for the initiative, the petitioners were able to obtain a total of 81 signatures.

Mark Lee Dickson, director of Right to Life of East Texas and the founder of Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, was in Paxton to celebrate the placing of the ordinance on the ballot. Dickson stated, “While it is always safer, easier, and less attention-drawing for communities to pass the ordinance through a vote of their village board or city council, seeing an ordinance move forward for a vote of the community is progress and progress is all we asked for.”

If passed, the penalty under the Paxton measure for violating the ordinance will be a $500 fine, but the language of the bill also made it clear that “under no circumstance may the penalty be imposed on the mother of the unborn child that has been aborted.”

For more on the Paxton vote click HERE

For more on the Hershey vote click HERE