Ohio city bans all abortions and declares it’s a ‘sanctuary city for the unborn’

The city council of Lebanon in southwest Ohio has voted to ban all abortions within city limits and has declared itself to be a “sanctuary city for the unborn”.

Council members voted unanimously to approve the measure on Tuesday night. The city is the first in the state to take such action.

The ordinance establishes that administering an abortion is illegal. Helping to facilitate an abortion is also prohibited, such as providing money, transportation or guidance for a procedure.

If someone is found guilty, they could serve up to six months in jail and be fined $1,000. But women seeking abortions won’t be prosecuted.

There are no exceptions mentioned for rape or incest, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The measure makes exemptions for pregnancies where the egg grows outside the uterus, which means it can’t survive and may injure the mother if left to grow. It also makes exemptions for miscarriages and preserving the health of the unborn child.

“We are clearly saying in our community we do not think it is in our best interest to open a clinic or a hospital that does abortions,” Mayor Amy Brewer said. “We are elected to make decisions based on what's good for our community today.”

There are currently no abortion clinics active in Lebanon, a town of about 20,000 people, and there no clinics are planned.

The mayor said the law would take effect immediately but abortion rights groups vowed to instantly file lawsuits.

“The residents of Lebanon deserve leaders who listen to the needs of community members rather than playing politics with people’s lives and health,” Stephanie Kollmann Baker, organizing director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, told the council.

Six council members voted for the ordinance, with the seventh member Krista Wyatt, resigning in protest before the vote.

“I am heartbroken to not fulfil my term and I know many people will be disappointed with this. But as a respectable, decent human being, I can no longer allow my name to be associated with the Lebanon city council,” she said in a statement to Fox 19.

“There is a core group of people who have hijacked the council to force their personal, political and religious views on the entire citizenship of Lebanon. It is not fair to the citizens and is not the role of a city council member to be a moral compass. The Charter clearly states that we are to be elected as a non-partisan status, but the Council membership has strayed very far from that,” Ms Wyatt said.

The ordinance was introduced by Councilman Doug Shope, who said he’s a conservative Christian who bases his decisions on his faith. He worked with Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, a Texas group that has aided 27 municipalities in Texas and Nebraska write measures that ban abortions.

An increasing number of cities and locales controlled by Republicans have passed similar measures, trying to convince the Supreme Court to reconsider its 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade, which established abortion to be a constitutional right.

“This hyper-local strategy is another attempt by anti-abortion extremists to stigmatise and ban abortion in Ohio, by whatever means necessary,” said Freda Levenson, Legal Director for the ACLU of Ohio, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Allie Frazier, a spokeswoman for the organisation Ohio Right to Life, said they hope to pass similar measures in other places across the state to make abortions “not just illegal but unthinkable across our great state”.

Dozens spoke before the council before the vote, both in favour and against the measure.

Speaking against the ordinance, Lebanon resident Veronica Strevel said: “It worries me because every Lebanon citizen needs a chance to speak and that shouldn’t get convoluted by outside influences. I want people to know that this is not okay. It’s not okay for our rogue city council to take it upon themselves to create an ordinance without consulting its citizens.”