Abortion Ban Law Written For Manatee Politician By Right To Life Of East Texas Director

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — A director with Right to Life of East Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, has helped 39 cities across the United States pass ordinances outlawing abortions, and is now focused on Manatee County.

Although there are no abortion providers in Manatee County, Mark Lee Dickson hopes to help get a similar law passed there that mirrors the recent Lubbock, Texas statute banning abortions. If that happens, it would be the first county or city in Florida to adopt an abortion ban.

Most of the 39 cities where Dickson has helped write and pass laws outlawing aborton access are in Texas, while two are in Nebraska and another in Ohio, he said.

On June 9, Dickson reached out for the first time to Manatee County Commissioner James Satcher, one day after the conservative minister representing District One proposed two pro-life initiatives at a Board of County Commissioners meeting. Dickson offered to write an ordinance outlawing abortion in Manatee County for Satcher to eventually present to the commission for consideration.

One of Satcher’s proposals at the June 8 commission meeting was similar to the controversial abortion ban passed by voters in Lubbock, Texas on May 1. That measure also declared Lubbock a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” Weeks later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a statewide law, referred to as the "Heartbeat Bill," May 19 prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

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In his second proposed pro-life initiative, Satcher suggested the creation of a grant program for children whose mothers were served by the county's crisis pregnancy programs.

During the meeting, Satcher acknowledged that of the two, the abortion ban “might be a little bit tougher sell.”

Dickson, who wrote the ordinance passed in Lubbock, learned about Satcher after reading an article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune about the commissioner’s pro-life initiatives.

“The article and the statements which Commissioner Satcher made in the article was what led me to reach out to Commissioner Satcher to begin with,” Dickson told Patch in an email. “Commissioner Satcher, clearly, showed interest in seeing abortion outlawed in his community. That was undeniable. Before that article, I had no knowledge of him.”

Dickson Contacts Satcher

In his June 9 email to Satcher — and the first communication between them — Dickson offered to draft an ordinance banning abortion in Manatee County for him.

“We have been working some in several states, including Florida, where we have been working in several cities there. We have already been looking at how counties can do this and what it might look like going forward in a way that keeps the counties and cities each in their own lane,” Dicksonn wrote in his email.

Patch obtained emails between Dickson and Satcher through a public records request. The request included all communications between the two from July 1 through the date the records request was completed. The county provided their emails to Patch on Sept. 24.

Dickson told the commissioner that his organization works with an attorney who “would be willing to defend the county, at no cost to the county or taxpayers, for any ordinance which is passed which I (am) involved with drafting. This means that it would be at absolutely no cost to you, only us, for the construction and review of such an ordinance.”

Satcher responded to Dickson’s email that same day — within 45 minutes — thanking him for his “generous offer.”

“I would love to have a conversation about the findings you have made in Florida so far,” he wrote.

The commissioner also copied Manatee County Attorney Bill Clague on his response.

When Dickson responded minutes later, he asked Satcher to move their conversation about a potential ordinance banning abortion from email communication to phone calls — intentionally taking it off public record.

“Feel free to reach out to me any time. I primarily do conversations over a phone call or in person due to the likelihood of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) obtaining these communications through an open records request which you can expect them to be doing, as that is standard practice for them regardless of the city or state,” Dickson wrote.

The anti-abortion leader told Patch, “When someone emails an elected official, those emails become part of the public record. There are times where certain conversations are best over the phone due to privacy reasons.”

He said that for the past two years, groups like the ACLU have filed public records request for any communication he’s had with leaders in the various cities he’s worked with across the country.

“I have no problem with the ACLU obtaining any of my communications with city or county officials which take place over e-mail. What I would have a problem with, however, would be them knowing my personal schedule, what hotels I was planning on staying at, or what restaurants I was recommended to eat at,” Dickson said. “If the county was hosting an event with a well-known public figure and that well-known figure was attending that event, it would not be considered unreasonable for that well-known public figure to be careful about what information they share or is shared with them in a way that would become part of the public record.”

He said he has concerns that the ACLU might share “information about the hotels and restaurants (he is) staying at with those in the community who might not have (his) best interest in mind.”

When he visited Manatee County in July, Dickson claimed he was mistreated by protestors at the board of county commissioners meeting he attended and that “all of (his) belongings disappear(ed) from a hotel in Manatee County in the middle of (his) stay.”

He added, “I have a valid reason to be concerned about my well-being in Manatee County.”

Patch has reached out to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for information about the incident at Dickson’s hotel.

Dickson Writes An Abortion Ban For Manatee County

There were no other emails between Dickson and Satcher until July 30, according to the public records search. In this email — the final email communication to turn up in Patch’s record request — Dickson sent the commissioner a draft of a Manatee County ordinance outlawing abortion.

This drafted ordinance declares abortion unlawful in the county unless the mother’s life is in danger. If passed, it would also declare abortion-inducing drugs as contraband and that possession of them within county limits is unlawful. It would also designate Manatee County as “a sanctuary for the unborn.” (Read Dickson’s complete drafted ordinance below.)

In the draft, Dickson also writes that Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion at the federal level in 1973, “is a lawless and unconstitutional act of judicial usurpation, as there is no language anywhere in the Constitution that even remotely suggests that abortion is a constitutional right.”

The ordinance he wrote was tailored specifically to Manatee County, he told Patch. “Every ordinance I am involved with is draft(ed) specifically for the political subdivision which it was drafted for in accord(ance) with all local, state and federal laws. In addition to this, all ordinances are also drafted to be consistent with all rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States. There is no such thing as ‘fill in the blank’ ordinances here.”

He usually provides these drafted ordinances for cities when someone who lives there requests one “and there appears to be a solid amount of support in the community,” he said.

Dickson added, “Many in Manatee County do not want to see babies murdered by abortion in their county. If that is truly how they feel, this ordinance outlaws that act. It’s that simple.”

Manatee County Awaits A Response From Florida’s Attorney General

Satcher has yet to present Dickson’s ordinance to county commissioners, who are split on the topic.

At their Sept. 14 meeting, though, they voted 4-3 to seek legal advicefrom Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody on establishing local abortion restrictions. Commissioners gave Satcher the green light to send a letter he penned to her office.

Commissioners Reggie Bellamy, Misty Servia and Carol Whitmore voted against reaching out to Moody, while Vanessa Baugh, George Kruse, Kevin Van Ostenbridge and Satcher supported sending Satcher’s letter.

Baugh, Bellamy, Kruse, Van Ostenbridge and Whitmore didn’t respond to Patch’s request for comments about Satcher’s relationship with Dickson or Dickson’s drafted ordinance.

In an email, Servia told Patch that “the county has no business regulating abortion.”

She added, “We have plenty of local issues to deal with and a very limited amount of money to do so. I do wish all commissioners (and voters) would focus on local issues.”

Satcher has not responded to multiple requests by Patch for phone interviews and emailed comments about his work with Dickson.

Read Dickson's complete draft ordinance for a Manatee County abortion ban: