Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the state’s capital city of Austin over a fund it has created that reimburses travel expenses for residents who have to obtain abortion services from out-of-state providers.
The city has allocated $400,000 for the fund as part of its most recent budget. In addition to creating the “Reproductive Health Grant,” Austin lawmakers have passed a resolution that definitively states that “reproductive rights are human rights.”
Texas law bans nearly all forms of abortion, with an exception for cases where the procedure is necessary to save a pregnant person’s life — but such exceptions, in Texas and elsewhere, are rarely granted, as they are written in such vague terms that medical providers often fear being prosecuted or imprisoned if the state disagrees with their assessment.
Within his lawsuit — the second to target the city regarding this particular fund — Paxton alleges that Austin is in violation of a state constitutional standard often referred to as “the gift clause,” which forbids municipalities in the state from awarding funds to individuals that do not serve a “public purpose.”
“No city in Texas has the authority to spend taxpayer money in this manner. … The Texas Constitution prohibits governmental entities from doing so,” Paxton said.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, seeks to place a temporary restraining order on the fund while the litigation moves forward.
A spokesperson for the city noted that Austin has “successfully litigated this issue in the past and, similar to another lawsuit that raises this issue, will respond to the recent allegations through the appropriate court channels.”
Other city officials released their own responses to Paxton’s threat of a lawsuit.
“Ken Paxton is once again exploiting the great power of his office to attack and undermine the fundamental rights of women and try to score a few political points in the process,” Mayor Kirk Watson said in a statement.
“Ken Paxton should focus on actually helping Texans instead of suppressing communities for promoting health care,” said Austin council member Vanessa Fuentes. “Reproductive care is essential health care and these actions only further undermine local efforts to uphold bodily freedom. It’s disappointing, but not surprising.”
“There are people that are in danger,” said Paige Ellis, another Austin council member. “Mothers are dying because they’re having miscarriages and they can’t get access to abortion care. We are trying to protect Texas families and that’s clearly not the intent of our attorney general.”
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