A Texas county near New Mexico, where abortion is legal, has banned helping people travel to get an abortion in one of the latest strategies conservatives are trying to limit access to abortions since the fall van Roe vs. Wade.

Lubbock County is the largest of four Texas counties that have now passed a version of the measure, which would be enforced through lawsuits brought by private citizens against people who help women obtain abortions.

It’s the same legal mechanism that Texas used to pass a strict abortion law in 2021 before the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state to ban almost all abortions entirely last year.

Commissioners in West Texas County passed the measure 3-0 at a meeting Monday, rejecting some requests to delay the vote.

The ordinance “has a lot of legal issues,” said Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish, the county’s top elected official. However, this ordinance has no problem with its intent, nor with the intentions of those who are passionate about it.”

The measures expand city ordinances passed in rural Texas in 2019 to ban abortion within their borders, even if the cities did not have a clinic that performed abortions. Critics have attacked the campaign as an attempt to intimidate women into having abortions in places where it is still legal.

Mark Lee Dickson, a Texas pastor who led the effort, praised the vote.

Guys, I’m longing for today [when]From coast to coast, abortion is considered a major moral, social and political wrong and is banned in every state, Dickson told commissioners.

Texans already live under some of the most restrictive and dangerous abortion bans in the country, yet anti-abortion extremists continue to erect additional unnecessary, confusing and frightening barriers to essential health care, said Autumn Keizer, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.

Texas is one of thirteen states that ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy. In August, a Texas judge ruled that the state’s ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications. But that ruling was quickly stayed after an appeal by the state.

The Texas law was passed before the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which upheld the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, which allowed abortions nationwide.

No violations of the travel ban have been reported in the provinces where similar measures are already in place. The measures would not punish women who seek abortions, but would pose legal risks for people who help transport them to get the procedure.

Legal experts have questioned whether the regulations can be enforced.

We haven’t had these types of issues tested, so it’s really a matter of first impression, says Seema Mohapatra, a health law expert and law professor at Southern Methodist University.

Lubbock County has a population of about 317,000, far exceeding the population of the three other Texas counties, Mitchell, Goliad and Cochran, that passed the ordinance in recent months, with each county’s population under 10,000. Highways through Lubbock County run into New Mexico, which has seen an influx of patients since Roe was overturned.

The ban does not apply to cities in Lubbock County, including the city of Lubbock, which has approximately 264,000 county residents. Lubbock voters passed a similar measure in 2021.