Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Antonio over its policy of funding travel expenses for pregnant women seeking abortions out-of-state.
The state filed the lawsuit last Friday in the District Court for Bexar County, taking issue with the city’s Reproductive Justice Fund, for which local officials reportedly allocated $100,000.
The lawsuit claims that the fund violates Texas’ Human Life Protection Act, which prohibits abortions in nearly every circumstance, and the Texas Constitution’s Gift Clause, which bars public funds from going to an individual for private purposes.
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“It is also a crime to aid or abet a violation of the state’s abortion laws,” the lawsuit reads. “As such, using taxpayer dollars to fund out-of-state abortions serves to support and encourage acts that are unlawful in Texas. Defendants are transparently attempting to undermine and subvert Texas law and public policy.”
In a statement released last Friday, Paxton said he believed San Antonio’s abortion travel funding was “an egregious misuse of public funds” and contradicted “the pro-life values of our state.”
“The city of San Antonio is blatantly defying Texas law by using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion tourism,” stated Paxton. “I will not stand by while rogue cities use tax dollars to circumvent state law and take the innocent lives of unborn children.”
In September 2023, the San Antonio City Council voted to allocate $500,000 toward a fund that would, among other things, provide travel money for women seeking an abortion out-of-state.
District Five Councilwoman Teri Castillo, a supporter of the fund, said in comments reported by ABC News’ Amarillo affiliate that the money “would provide a wide range of reproductive services,” including STI testing and birth control.
“The Texas state government has been hostile on reproductive rights and has actively worked to undermine individual’s rights to full reproductive health care,” Castillo continued.
Last week, San Antonio voted 6-5 to allocate an additional $100,000 to the fund, with District One Councilwoman Sukh Kaur being part of the narrow majority.
“Access to comprehensive healthcare, including reproductive care [abortion], is fundamental to the well-being of our communities,” stated Kaur in advance of the vote. “The additional funding for the Reproductive Justice Fund is a crucial step in ensuring that women have the support they need to make their own medical decisions.”
District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte voted against the allocation, saying in a statement that he believed the city council was misplacing its priorities by not putting that money elsewhere.
“Twenty-two percent of our city’s roads are currently rated in poor or failing condition. In 2024 alone, San Antonio experienced over 31,000 crimes against persons and more than 108,000 crimes against property. These are the issues impacting every neighborhood,” Whyte stated.
“When streets are crumbling and families are worried about crime, we cannot afford to redirect limited resources toward efforts that go far beyond our municipal authority and into areas clearly regulated by the state,” he added.
