The Office of the Attorney General of Texas sued the City of Austin over the city council’s decision to pay for abortion travel and force taxpayers to fund the deaths of preborn babies.

On August 14, the Austin City Council approved its budget for fiscal year 2025. The description allocates $400,000 to a “Reproductive Health-Logistical Support” fund, which will send tax dollars to criminal pro-abortion groups that aid and abet illegal and out-of-state abortions.

The fund would even pay for a companion to travel with the woman seeking an abortion. This measure additionally criticizes Texas’ Pro-Life laws, which save an estimated 100 preborn Texans per day.

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The Office of the Attorney General is suing to oppose Austin for using taxpayer public money to fund expenses for women traveling out of Texas to obtain abortions. Attorney General Paxton seeks a temporary restraining order to stop any distribution of funds. As a sovereign entity, the state of Texas has the unique power and right to enact, interpret, and enforce its own laws,” as stated in the petition.

San Antonio City Council approved a similar budget item last year that immediately landed the government in a lawsuit from local citizens and Texas Right to Life. Although San Antonio has not yet distributed the funding, officials repeatedly discussed sending money to anti-Life groups that directly pay for or aid in elective abortions.

It is unclear how exactly the Austin City Council will allocate the “Reproductive Health-Logistical Support” funding. Importantly, 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 City of Austin has a history of using taxpayer dollars to promote abortion. Austin leased a public property valued at $2 million to Planned Parenthood for just $1 per year. Council members also slashed police funding in 2020 and redirected much of that money to the abortion industry. The city additionally passed an unenforceable resolution to “decriminalize abortion” in 2022 in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973).

Austin should not pay to kill its own innocent citizens, nor should taxpayers be forced to participate in this violence. The city should help new mothers by supporting pregnancy resource centers, and providing life-affirming resources to mothers and children, rather than ending the lives of the most defenseless within their communities.

LifeNews Note: Miranda Willborg writes for Texas Right to Life.