The pro-life movement earned another victory last week when Planned Parenthood on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against Lubbock City in Texas. Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Surgical Health Services, an abortion clinic affiliated with America's largest abortion provider, dropped its case against the city of Lubbock, which is known as the largest "sanctuary of the unborn" after a vote that made abortion illegal in the city.
According to the Christian Post, up to 62.5% of the city's residents voted in 2021 in favor of a referendum that made it "unlawful for any person to procure or perform an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy" inside Lubbock, Texas. Planned Parenthood then filed a lawsuit against the city following the vote.
Now, Planned Parenthood has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit shortly after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division upheld the abortion ban. The judge also decided that Planned Parenthood did not have the jurisdiction to file the lawsuit. Similar to the controversial Texas Heartbeat Act, Lubbock's abortion ban empowers private citizens instead of city officials to enforce the ban.
Planned Parenthood first appealed the lower court decision, but has now decided to drop the appeal. In a motion to dismiss the case, their lawyers cited the lower court decision and noted that the Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b) and Circuit Rule 42.1 empowered them to do so. This rule states, "The circuit court may dismiss a docketed appeal if the parties file a signed dismissal agreement specifying how costs are to be paid and pay any fees that are due."
The rule also said, "No mandate or other process may issue without a court order. An appeal may be dismissed on the appellant's motion on terms agreed to by the parties or fixed on the court." As per Planned Parenthood's attorneys, both the plaintiffs and defendants in the case have come to the agreement that "the parties will bear their own costs for this appeal and for the proceedings in the court," and that "no additional fees are due."
The abortion provider filed to dismiss the appeal just a day ahead of the 9th annual March for Life, the annual gathering of pro-life advocates to campaign for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Pro-life advocates are hopeful that once the justices decide on a the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban, Roe v. Wade would somehow come a step closer to being overturned. Pro-life advocates also celebrated the win in Lubbock, Texas.
"We have said from the beginning that the abortion bans we have drafted are bulletproof from court challenge, and we are pleased that the litigation over Lubbock's ordinance has proven us right," Right to Life of East Texas president and the leading advocate for creating the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, Mark Lee Dickson remarked. "We will continue our work to enact similar ordinances in other cities throughout the United States."
CBN News reported that State Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock also congratulated the city for their pro-life win, applauding it for "becoming the first jurisdiction in the United States to successfully defend an abortion ban in court since Roe v. Wade."
