LUBBOCK COUNTY, Texas  — Lubbock County commissioners on Monday approved an ordinance that will ban pregnant women from traveling through unincorporated parts of the county in order to obtain an abortion in another state.

What You Need To Know

  • Lubbock County on Monday became the fourth Texas county to enact a so-called "abortion travel ban"

  • The ordinance prohibits pregnant women from traveling through unincorporated parts of the county in order to seek an abortion in another state

  • The ordinance can only be enforced by private citizens who file lawsuits against people assisting pregnant Texans who are seeking an abortion. It will not penalize pregnant women

  • Proponents of the ordinance framed it as a measure to prevent “abortion trafficking,” suggesting that pregnant women are being transported to other state against their will

Lubbock is the fourth Texas county to enact such a ban and is the largest. The 2020 census placed the county’s population at just over 310,000.

The other Texas counties that passed similar ordinances are Cochran, Goliad and Mitchell. Those are small, rural counties.

It’s not a simple ordinance. It can only be enforced by private citizens who file lawsuits against people assisting pregnant Texans who are seeking an abortion, according to Spectrum News 1 media partner The Texas Tribune. It would not penalize pregnant women.

With few exceptions, abortions are illegal in Texas. Questions have been raised about the legality of pregnant women traveling beyond Texas to obtain an abortion.

Spectrum News 1 spoke with Joanna Grossman, a Southern Methodist University law professor, last year. She said no law prohibits Texans from crossing state lines, even for an abortion.

“Now, for any individual person right now, if they were to leave the state to get an abortion that is clearly not prevented or prohibited by any of these Texas laws,” Grossman said. “It's a little less clear whether people in Texas who helped women leave Texas for an abortion, whether they might face some legal risk. And it seems pretty clear that people from outside of Texas who received women from Texas or even help them get out of Texas, probably are not going to run afoul of any of the resulting rules.”

The Texas Tribune noted that proponents of the ordinance framed it as a measure to prevent “abortion trafficking,” suggesting that pregnant women are being transported to other states against their will.

 Capital Tonight's Charlotte Scott contributed to this report.