On Monday, August 12, 2024, the Potter-Randall County Medical Society (PRCMS) held a press conference led by Dr. Steve Urban. During the press conference, Dr. Urban shared that the PRCMS had concerns about the wording of the ballot language for the proposed Sanctuary City for the Unborn (SCFTU) ordinance set to go before voters on November 5, 2024. According to Dr. Urban, the parts of the ballot language giving the PRCMS the most concern is the part that states, “[declaring] that abortion at all times and at all stages of pregnancy is unlawful unless an abortion is performed to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency” and the part using the word “trafficking.” The only time the word “trafficking” is used in the ballot language is in the phrase “prohibiting abortion trafficking of an unborn child.” Dr. Urban also expressed concerns the ordinance could have a chilling effect on the relationship between physicians and their patients.
Despite the concerns raised by Dr. Urban on behalf of the PRCMS, the ballot language was approved on August 13, 2024, with both parts of the ballot language criticized by the PRCMS left intact in a 4-1 vote by the Amarillo City Council. While Dr. Urban was unsuccessful in changing the ballot language, his efforts to influence others are expected to continue through the PRCMS and his church—the Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (AUUF).
Dr. Steve Urban, AUUF, and Abortion
Earlier that day, AUUF posted a link to the press conference on their Facebook account. The post read, “Watch our member Dr. Steve Urban discuss the misleading language in the upcoming abortion travel ban ordinance. In this 27 minute video, he is representing the Potter & Randall Counties Medical Association members’ views on how the ordinance language should be amended. Well done Dr. Urban.”
Dr. Steve Urban is not just a member of AUUF. He and his wife Joan Urban have been an active part in leading the fellowship for several years. Dr. Steve Urban served as co-chair of the Leadership Development Committee in 2023 and continues to serve as co-chair of the committee in 2024. Joan Urban served as president of the fellowship in 2023 and continues to serve on the Board of Directors for 2024 as their past president. Joan also served on the Membership Committee in 2023 and is serving as co-chair of the Membership Committee and the Caring Committee in 2024. The fellowship’s Knowledge Seekers class, which was the brainchild of Joan Urban, is often led by Dr. Steve Urban. According to their August newsletter, the class has given $270 to “Defend Reproductive Freedom in TX towards billboard expenses.”
A fundraiser on GoFundMe entitled Defend Reproductive Freedom in TX, explains the reason for such an effort—the consideration of legislation in Amarillo that would declare the city a “sanctuary city for the unborn” and prohibit abortion trafficking through the city and outside the state of Texas. The campaign reads, “To push back against this, we are crowdfunding to put up billboards in support of a woman’s right to choose … Abortions are not going away–they should be safe, legal and available under the care of medical professionals!” The campaign, which began on April 24, 2024, raised a total of $3,500 through a variety of different donors. The most prominent donor to the campaign was Aubrey Reinhardt Birkenfeld, who serves as the Assistant District Attorney for Randall County.
Several in leadership with AUUF contributed to the billboard campaign, including April Myers (Leadership Committee Co-Chair in 2024, Membership Committee Co-Chair in 2024, and Communication and Technology Committee Co-Chair in 2024), Ann Hicks (Caring Committee Co-Chair in 2023, Social Action Committee Co-Chair in 2023, and Worship Committee Co-Chair in 2024), Cindi Wynia (Social Action Committee Co-Chair in 2024), Melody Pinson (Board Member and Trustee in 2024), Janda Raker (Social Action Committee Co-Chair in 2023 and 2024), and Vicki Schoen (Caring Committee Co-Chair in 2024).
The billboard placed by the Amarillo Freethought Society read, “Your government does NOT own your body. YOU DO! PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS!” Matching the local efforts, the Freedom From Religion Foundation placed a billboard that read, “Keep Your Theology Off My Biology.” And lastly, the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance placed two more billboards as a result of the campaign. Their first billboard read “Keep Texas Roads Open – Say No To Travel Bans” while their second billboard read, “Protect Our Community – Say No To Travel Bans.”
On August 8, 2024, Eric Gonzalez, who had organized the campaign, wrote, “Thank you once more to everyone who assisted with our reproductive rights billboard fundraiser! We have now closed the fundraiser to additional donations. A special thanks to April Myers and the Knowledge Seekers of the Unitarian Fellowship of Amarillo for helping close out our fundraiser.”
The Texas Freedom Network, AUUF, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Abortion
According to their August 16, 2024 newsletter, AUUF became a “Reproductive Freedom Congregation” on August 11, 2024—only a day before Dr. Steve Urban led the press conference for the PRCMS. The newsletter reads, “Our Fellowship is now a Reproductive Freedom Congregation! This initiative from Just Texas seeks to bring reproductive freedom issues out of the shadows and to encourage progressive faith communities to engage in an active effort to end the stigma around reproductive health services, including abortion.” Just Texas is a program of the Texas Freedom Network’s Education Fund.
When the Clarendon City Council rejected a proposed SCFTU ordinance for their city in May 2024, it was discovered that Stephanie Chiarello, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), and Blair Wallace with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) were coaching Alderman Eulaine McIntosh on how to defeat the proposed ordinance. TFN is an organization that was founded by former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, daughter of former Texas Democrat Governor Ann Richards. According to Influence Watch, “The Texas Freedom Network is a left-of-center lobbying organization that opposes religious conservatives on issues such as sex education, legal abortion, and Bible study in public schools.” The report goes on to say, “The Texas Freedom Network’s projects include Texas Rising, which provides training to left-of-center leaders and activists on college campuses throughout the state encouraging voter registration and left-of-center social policy advocacy, and Just Texas, which advocates for state policies that support abortion and LGBT interests while opposing policies it claims amount to religious establishment.”
According to the Just Texas website, a “Reproductive Freedom Congregation” is a congregation proclaiming, “We are here to say abortion is a blessing” and publicly affirming three principles: “[1] We trust and respect women and people who can become pregnant. [2] We promise that people who attend our congregation will be free from stigma, shame, or judgment for their reproductive decisions, including abortion. [3] We believe access to comprehensive and affordable reproductive health services, including abortion, is a moral and social good.”
AUUF describes itself as one of the earliest Unitarian Universalist congregations in Texas. The AUUF newsletter states, “Our charter membership was issued on June 5, 1950, for membership in what was then the American Unitarian Association. The Unitarian and Universalist organizations merged in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).” The UUA and its ministers have had a long history of supporting abortion access and pushing back against abortion bans.
According to the UUA website, “The UUA General Assembly passed its first statement supporting the right to choose abortion (with a ‘compelling reason’) in 1963, and many UUs were active in the Clergy Consultation Service, an underground interfaith network that helped people seeking an abortion get counseling and skilled medical care prior to the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.” The website continues, “In Texas, the Dallas UU congregation helping lead the resistance to SB8 has championed reproductive rights for decades. In fact, members of the Dallas congregation were party to an amicus brief to the SCOTUS in Roe v Wade, and the UUA was the first religious denomination to formally support a woman’s right to choose in 1963.”
In a story published in June of 2022 by the BBC, Reverend Kanter shared, “Before Roe, the clergy of my church were driving women to the Gulf of Mexico to get on boats to go out in international waters and have legal and safe abortion.” The report from BBC continued:
It was January 1970 when the women’s group of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas’s women’s group met to discuss an issue dividing the nation then as now: abortion. According to minutes seen by the BBC, they were joined by a young lawyer named Linda Coffee, who along with her colleague Sarah Weddington, was determined to file a lawsuit against the state of Texas over its restrictions to abortion access … As none of the women were pregnant at the time, none could serve as a plaintiff, so they helped by submitting a key legal brief in support of reproductive choice when Coffee and Weddington did go to court with the Roe v Wade case.
Not only did the Dallas UU congregation figure in the filing of Roe v. Wade, but First Unitarian Church of Dallas also played a role in helping Curtis Wayne Boyd open the first legal abortion facility in the state after the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Boyd, who is the godfather of the abortion movement in Texas, has scheduled a book signing at the church in September 2024 for his book entitled, We Choose To: A Memoir of Providing Abortion Care Before, During, and After Roe.
In 2021, after the passage of Senate Bill 8 (also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act), Reverend Daniel Kanter from First Unitarian Church of Dallas sued the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn (SCFTU) Initiative out of concerns that the Texas Heartbeat Act would impact his ability to counsel and support pregnant women who were considering an abortion. Kanter told the Intercept, “My question to Texans today is whether you want … the courts in the room when your ministers or clergy counsel you. The law threatens to interfere with what we as faith leaders can and cannot talk about.” Kanter continued, “And we might all ask this question: What’s the next thing we won’t be allowed to talk about in the privacy of our counseling sessions? The idea that the state gets to decide what we can discuss in the protected confessionals and faith-based conversations … is frankly un-American and unethical.” In the end, Reverend Daniel Kanter lost his lawsuit against the founder of the SCFTU Initiative in a 9-0 ruling before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 2021.
In a sermon preached at First Unitarian Church of Dallas on February 25, 2024, Reverend Kanter commented, “Just this week, we harbored abortion travel patients that we took to New Mexico that we’ve been taking for two years now since SB 8.” In April, the church opened a pregnancy resource center that offers abortion resources, including help traveling to New Mexico for abortion services. One of the staff members of First Unitarian Dallas, Lora Brandis, is a frequent guest speaker at AUUF.
Claudia Stravato, AUUF, UUA, the League of Women Voters of Amarillo, and Abortion
On February 11, 2023, Claudia Stravato with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) joined with the Executive Director of Women’s March, Rachel O’Leary Carmona, and with other pro-abortion leaders and organizations for the Bigger Than Roe Rally held outside the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo. This rally was to protest the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA lawsuit relating to the use of mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medical abortions.
Stravato, who has been a member of AUUF since 1979, was the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle from 1999 to 2009. According to Stravato, she had “full responsibility for managing up to 21 clinics and down to three clinics serving a 26-county area.” Stravato was one of the six co-founders of the organization known as Executive Women in Texas Government, and, prior to her run at Planned Parenthood, she served as Director of Professional Education at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas, Chief of Staff to Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, Deputy Comptroller for Texas Comptroller Bob Bullock.
At the end of AUUF’s Sunday morning service on January 14, 2024, Stravato announced to the congregation, “There is a meeting here today at 3:00 pm with the group called ARFA, who are trying to preserve the status of abortion in Amarillo. The man who originated the idea of an ordinance making cities sanctuary cities for the unborn has broken with the city council because they will not include the travel restriction (where you can’t drive on Amarillo’s streets and roads to go to New Mexico for an abortion) and the snitch component, and so he is out getting people signing a petition to force the city to deal with his ordinance. And so the women will be meeting here today at 3:00 pm to work on that, to figure out what their approach will be to his petition and to what the city council should do since they will not go along with his ordinance.”
Stravato currently serves as the Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Amarillo, an organization that is not shy about its stance on abortion. In its July edition of The Voter, the organization had a special statement regarding the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance.
Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance will appear on the city-wide ballot in November, bypassing the Amarillo City Council’s rejection. Our organization follows the guidance of both the national and state Leagues, and therefore, we oppose this ordinance. Our shared position is as follows: “The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that public policy in a pluralistic society must affirm the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.” The League of Women Voters of Texas supports the health of citizens who can become pregnant, which includes access to comprehensive reproductive health services such as contraception and safe, legal abortions.
The League of Women Voters of Amarillo went on to explain why they fight “to allow women their right of reproductive choice” by giving the following four reasons:
- “Abortion is a safe medical procedure. Medical abortions have less than 0.5% risk of serious complications and do not affect the health of the pregnant person or their future ability to become pregnant or give birth.”
- “Without access to safe, legal abortions, those experiencing an unwanted pregnancy will obtain them illegally in unsafe facilities where their lives will be endangered.”
- “Those who oppose abortion on the grounds of their personal religious beliefs DO NOT have the right to impose their views on others who might not share them.”
- “Restrictions on abortion place an unnecessary burden on people and families with low incomes and those living in low resourced, rural areas.”
The League of Women Voters of Amarillo concluded their statement by saying, “In 2022, SCOTUS overruled Roe v. Wade, triggering laws in Texas that effectively eliminated abortions in Texas. We believe the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance is unnecessary.”
In their August edition of The Voter, Amarillo League of Women Voters Co-Presidents Michelle Hoggatt and Jenny Inzerillo wrote,
The League will be hosting an educational forum on October 17th at Happy State Bank’s Virgil Patterson Auditorium (701 S. Taylor), specifically aimed at informing voters about the upcoming ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’ ordinance and city charter amendments that will appear on the November ballot. (While our League agrees with the state and national Leagues’ positions to oppose legislation that limits reproductive freedom, this forum is to educate the public about how the ordinance would affect our city.)
The “Health Care Reform” section of the League of Women Voters (LWV) website reads, “Every US resident should have access to affordable, quality health care, including birth control and the privacy to make reproductive choices” and pages 57-61 of LWV Impact On Issues: A Guide to Public Policy Positions of the League of Women Voters 2022-2024 details the history of their organization’s advocacy for abortion and abortion-related causes.
Stravato, who serves as a co-chair of the Worship Committee at AUUF for 2024, is not the only member of AUUF’s leadership involved in the League of Women Voters of Amarillo.
Kathryn English serves as a Trustee on AUUF’s Board of Directors for 2024 and as a co-chair of the Caring Committee and the Communication and Technology Committee for 2024 at AUUF. With the League of Women Voters of Amarillo, English serves as a co-director over Online Communications and Social Media. Melody Pinson serves as a Trustee on AUUF’s Board of Directors for 2024 and serves as a co-director over Voter Guides for the League of Women Voters of Amarillo.
On June 23, 2024, at the beginning of the Sunday morning service of AUUF, Claudia Stravato reflected on the life of Jeanette Springer whom she had worked with through the Amarillo League of Women Voters and the AUUF. Praising Springer, Stravato shared, “She was in her 80s, I think she was 86, but just a few years ago she drove two different women to Albuquerque for an abortion—and the first lady she took didn’t even speak English.”
Janda Raker, Amarillo Abortion Access, AUUF, Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, and Abortion
When Women’s March had its Bigger Than Roe Rally outside of the Potter County Courthouse on February 11, 2023, they did not do so without the help of a group called Abortion Access Amarillo. The Executive Director for Women’s March, Rachel O’Leary Carmona, shared, “We have folks from local churches and congregations. We have folks from Abortion Access Amarillo, who are coming through.” Carmona continued, “So, we have statewide ties, local ties, and then, of course, our national ties that, you know, work with us on all of our mobilizations and that will be coming through as well.”
On March 15, 2023, Women’s March encouraged their followers to protest a hearing of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case before Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo. The protest and rally was called “Taking the Circus to the Clown.” The advertisement read:
Dedicated to Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a politician in robes who is making a mockery of justice. He says he doesn’t want a “circus-like’”atmosphere, all while behaving like a clown who treats our lives like a political game. So we will bring the circus to him. Come in your clown makeup, and we will show the world what the Federal Court is all about here in Amarillo, a kangaroo court! We will be putting on a peaceful demonstration to call attention to this scheme to pervert the judicial system to remove our right to safe healthcare.
According to The Guardian, “about 30 demonstrators from the Texas Panhandle and neighboring eastern New Mexico turned out.” Among those in attendance was Janda Raker. Raker served as a co-chair of the Social Action Committee for 2023 at AUUF and continues to serve on that same committee for 2024. The Guardian described Raker as a “longtime reproductive rights organizer” who had “collaborated with the Dallas-based TEA Fund for six years, to help anyone who called the organization’s helpline—whether by funding their abortion care or driving them the four hours to Albuquerque in neighboring New Mexico for their procedure.”
Over a year later, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Amarillo resident Lindsay London protested the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case that had made its way to the Supreme Court of the United States. London is one of the six co-founders of a group known as the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance (ARFA). London told the Washington Post that she “has driven women to Albuquerque and Denver to receive a surgical abortion” and “provides resources for people to obtain mifepristone.”
On June 16, 2024, London was the guest speaker at AUUF’s Sunday morning gathering. London had been invited to speak at the fellowship by Claudia Stravato. At the beginning of her speech, London shared, “This week was one of tremendous victories for our organization and the reproductive rights movement overall. As many of you know, after almost nine months of the Sanctuary City for the Unborn Ordinance being discussed, and quite honestly battled, within our city council chamber and our city, we are thrilled to report that the city council voted to reject both ordinance versions by a vote of 4-1.” The congregation erupted in applause.
In detailing the history of ARFA, London shared, “We formed in July of 2023 in response to the SCFTU movement taking a much more targeted attack within our city council and our community. ARFA was born by the incredible groundwork and advocacy led by Janda Raker when she formed Abortion Access Amarillo (AAA) back in 2016.”
London continued, “Myself and others had volunteered with Janda in various capacities during her time doing that deeply important work providing practical support within Amarillo as well as forming partnerships with organizations like Jane’s Due Process—for which we still partner today.” She added, “In April of 2023 I was honored when Janda asked me if I would like to take over leadership of AAA. We held a meeting here, at the UU, with our community to discuss the passing of the torch. It was and remains an honor to have her trust to continue in this critically important work for abortion education, supporting access, and with the wider mission of advocating for overall reproductive rights in our community. That day, there was a group of women who joined in at the meeting at the UU. Most of us already knew each other through the artist communities and other connections and we would eventually become the lead team of ARFA. And that team consists of Kat Browning, Courtney Brown, Gabby Mireles, Harper Metcalf, and Fariha Samad.”
While the group originally operated under the name AAA, the group decided “… to pivot and start a similar project but under a different name in hopes of being more palatable by not having the name ‘abortion’ at the forefront” and to have “… an initial focus of the civil engagement that we have taken part in with our civil government over the last year.”
London continued, “Many, if not most of those who started AAA, are still a large part of the work that ARFA is doing within the community. AAA’s mission is still very much alive and well within the work that ARFA does and we could not have gotten here without Janda’s stewardship and her steadfast commitment to reproductive health access.”
According to an article published on August 9, 2024 in the Amarillo Tribune, “Lindsay London said ARFA was thrilled that the Potter-Randall County Medical Society made a formal statement against the ordinance, which cohesively outlines the harm the ordinance would cause to Amarillo’s medical community.” Amarillo Tribune quoted London, “We are not in direct relation with them. They are doing their own work independently. But we’ve been so thrilled to see that a society with that standing in our community is also speaking out against the ordinance. We’re really grateful for their efforts.”
London also shared that ARFA has “… rallied support and sought guidance from other organizations” such as the ACLU of Texas, AVOW, Jane’s Due Process, and the TEA Fund to “… understand how to best approach situations” calling them “well-established champions for reproductive rights in Texas.”
Concluding Thoughts
During the 2022 Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly, delegates called Unitarian Universalists to a multitude of different actions, including organizing to “… build relationships between our congregations and other faith activists, and then with local health clinics and organizations… Speaking publicly as people of faith whose UU theology compels us to work for Reproductive Justice and abortion access for all… [and] Participating in protest events and rallies such as Bans Off Our Bodies, Rally for Roe, etc.”
There is no doubt that Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship heeded that call, building relationships between their congregations, other activists, and “local health clinics” and health “organizations” like the Potter-Randall County Medical Society. There is no doubt that the fellowship has allowed their “UU theology” to compel them to “… work for Reproductive Justice and abortion access for all.” And there is no doubt that they have done their part to participate in their fair share of protest events and rallies.
On August 18, 2024, after the Sunday morning service of the Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Claudia Stravato shared, “We have a change on the August 25th talk by Steve [Urban]. It will be on the ‘Sanctuary for the Unborn’ ordinance that is causing so much commotion in the community. It is clearly a travesty, and he will tell us why.”
Apparently, the spokesperson for the Potter-Randall County Medical Society has much more to say about the proposed Amarillo Sanctuary City for the Unborn Ordinance.
This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@texasscorecard.com.
