The state is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop San Antonio from distributing city funds to groups that assist women seeking out-of-state abortions.
The lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton comes just a day after City Council voted to approve spending $100,000 of its reproductive health fund on services like emergency contraception and transportation.
In a statement, Paxton said San Antonio was “blatantly defying” state law, and that cities “have no authority to use public money to assist people in circumventing Texas’s pro-life protections.”
His explanation of which laws were broken, however, was more complicated.
Texas has a law prohibiting public dollars from funding abortions, but GOP lawmakers are still working on outlawing taxpayer dollars going toward “abortion assistance” entities, like San Antonio wants to fund.
Paxton suggested the plan San Antonio approved Thursday violates the state constitution’s “gift clause,” which broadly prohibits the use of public dollars for private purposes.
A similar suit was filed against the city of Austin, which also sought to use city money to fund travel for residents’ out-of-state abortions.
San Antonio city leaders maintain they’ve done nothing illegal, but said they’ll evaluate the specific allegations once they’ve been served.
“Yesterday’s council action approved an expedited procurement process for the city to obtain proposals for downstream [reproductive health] services, which may include travel. The action did not award any funds for services,” City Attorney Andy Segovia’s office said in a statement. “We are still confident that the action Council took yesterday is compliant with local, state, and federal law.”
