BROWNFIELD, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — A grassroots pro-life effort has revived a “Sanctuary for the Unborn” ordinance in a Texas town, just days after the city council voted to reject it.

On April 2, the Brownfield City Council voted 5-3 to reject a proposed ordinance that would forbid “performing elective abortions and aiding or abetting elective abortions”; “elective abortions on their residents – regardless of where the abortion took place”; “abortion trafficking pregnant mothers to abortion facilities across state lines”; “mailing abortion-inducing drugs into the community”; “criminal abortion organizations from operating in the community”; and “transporting the bodies of aborted babies killed by out-of-state abortion providers into the state to be disposed of as trash.” It would be enforced by citizen lawsuits against offenders.

But Live Action reports that 24-year-old Natalie Chandler refused to settle for that outcome, and spearheaded a citizen initiative petition to force the council to reconsider.

“What followed was one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to be a part of,” she said. “In addition to the help of people from throughout my community, individuals from surrounding towns in West Texas and whole families driving in from East Texas were willing to come to Brownfield and go door to door –  all in the pouring rain – informing our citizens of the ordinance being rejected, and collect signatures that would give the ordinance another chance to be considered before the council, all because they wanted to help protect the sanctity of life in a town that wasn’t even their own.”

On April 16, Brownfield City Secretary Kelly Burris informed Chandler that her petition had enough signatures to force reconsideration of the matter. If they still reject the ordinance, it will go before the voters of the city for approval.

“As we count down the days until the ordinance is presented again to the city council, this time with the resounding voice of the people to back it, I pray for God’s ‘good, pleasing, and perfect will’ to be done in our town,” Chandler said.

Thirteen states ban most abortions starting at conception; another five ban it once a fetal heartbeat can be detected (around six weeks), with additional states imposing a range of later restrictions.

Texas currently has a near-total abortion ban dating to 1925, a trigger law signed in 2021, and a heartbeat-based abortion ban that was allowed to take effect by the Texas and U.S. Supreme Courts – thanks to its unconventional enforcement mechanism (citizen lawsuits rather than government prosecution) – several months before the nation’s highest court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Forty-six cities and counties in the Lone Star State have since adopted Sanctuary for the Unborn ordinances.