'Sanctuary city for the unborn': All-male city council in Texas town bans most abortions

A small town in Texas has declared itself the state's first "sanctuary city for the unborn" after its city council, made up solely of men, passed a resolution banning most abortion procedures.

Waskom, Texas, has no abortion services available, but supporters of the ordinance wanted a measure to prevent an abortion clinic from being able to open in the city of roughly 2,000, KTAL-TV reported.

A packed crowd was reportedly in attendance at the city council meeting Tuesday night when all five men voted for the measure, which declares abortion providers "criminal organizations."

Its passage comes amid a larger push around the country, mostly in statehouses, to pass laws that restrict women's access to abortion in hopes that one of the laws will be challenged and make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters then hope that justices will reconsider the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which protects women's right to an abortion.

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According to KETK-TV, the Waskom measure calls Roe v. Wade and laws that permit abortion "unconstitutional usurpations of judicial power ... and are null and void in the City of Waskom.”

Before the vote, Mayor Jesse Moore told the city council and residents that the town probably would face a lawsuit for the ordinance but that it couldn't afford to lose the challenge.

Moore said he hoped the Supreme Court would use a legal challenge to the declaration to look at Roe v. Wade again. However, it's not clear whether the nation's highest court will take on any case that could potentially reverse the Roe decision. Abortion-rights groups have already filed challenges to recent laws in states such as Alabama and Ohio.

Still, backers of the measure celebrated its passage in Waskom. 

"We decided to take things into our own hands and that we have got to do something to protect our cities and to protect the unborn children," Mark Lee Dickson, director of East Texas Right to Life, said, according to KETK-TV.

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The measure, which exempts victims of rape and incest and women whose lives are at risk without an abortion, comes after neighboring Louisiana recently passed a law banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Waskom is just a short drive from Shreveport, Louisiana, and Moore said that he feared a Louisiana abortion clinic may want to move to Waskom after the law passed, the Longview (Texas) News-Journal reported.

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller