The City Council of Austin, Texas, voted on August 14 to use taxpayer funds to pay for its citizens to travel for out-of-state abortions. Texas law protects most preborn children from the deadly procedures.
According to Texas Right to Life, the city council approved its 2025 budget, which includes $500,000 for “Reproductive Health-Logistical Support,” i.e., abortion travel expenses. The fund would not only help women travel but would also pay for a companion to accompany them. As Texas Right to Life reports, it is unclear exactly how the city plans to allocate the funds, as “it is a crime to donate money to organizations that ‘procure’ out-of-state abortions. Any individual or government entity that gives to these groups becomes complicit in their criminal acts.”
The council’s decision to approve the funding is similar to a budget item passed in San Antonio last year. Texas Right to Life and local citizens filed a lawsuit against San Antonio for its allocation of the money, and to date, no funds have actually been distributed from that city for abortion travel.
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This is not the first instance in which Austin officials have decided to flout state law and show their support for abortion. The city previously voted to take taxpayer money earmarked for the police department and instead use it to fund “logistical support services” for abortion, and in 2018, it leased city property valued at $2 million to a Planned Parenthood abortion facility for just $1 a year. Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, city council members passed an unenforceable measure that attempted to circumvent the state’s trigger law protecting preborn children from abortion.
“Austin should not pay to kill its own innocent citizens, and taxpayers should not be forced to participate,” Texas Right to Life said in a statement following the budget vote. “Instead, the city should help new mothers by supporting pregnancy resource centers so that women have the assistance needed to deliver and care for their children.”
