Some sparks fly as council finalizes budget, including fund to assist travel for abortion care

San Antonio – As the San Antonio City Council spent a 2d day debating last-minute tweaks to town price range, an offer that would assist fund journeys to out-of-state abortion clinics endured to be some degree of competition.

A $500,000 so-called “Reproductive Justice Fund” is poised to make it into town’s $3.7 billion price range forward of a last vote on Thursday. Abortion advocates stated a fund managed by way of the Metropolitan Health District may beef up teams that offer sexual well being products and services, including transportation and accommodation for girls searching for felony abortions out of doors of the state.

The process has been unlawful in Texas because the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and opened the door to state-by-state law.

Some teams have helped girls get across the state’s ban by way of serving to quilt travel prices so they may be able to move someplace the process is felony.

Advocates and their supporters at the town council additionally stated a Reproductive Justice Fund is also used to beef up teams that provide reproductive well being assets like STI trying out or prenatal nutrients, reproductive healthcare training, beef up for doula coaching, or coaching for reproductive healthcare carrier suppliers.

Council contributors may move the fund as a part of Thursday’s price range with out defining its precise limits, regardless that council contributors would in the end want to nail the ones down.

Most of the council contributors have expressed beef up for some model of the theory.

“To me, this item is not about abortion. It is literally about reproductive health. And it’s an important aspect and component of women’s bodies,” stated Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7).

One of the theory’s largest supporters, Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), has stated serving to organizations that provide travel help would “ideally” be a part of the fund’s goal. She has additionally painted it as some way to apply via at the earlier council’s answer final yr expressing beef up for abortion get entry to.

Castillo, Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), and Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) even recommended including an extra $500,000 for a 2d yr. They proposed the additional cash pop out of every other imaginable modification — $1 million for an inclusive resort in the course of the Morgan’s Wonderland Inclusion Foundation.

“I’m supportive of the mission, but I also recall they receive $14 million or $15 million from ARPA funding,” Castillo stated.

The just one at the dais to publicly oppose the measure has been the council’s maximum conservative member, Councilman Marc Whyte (D10). Speaking in opposition to the theory once more on Wednesday, Whyte famous San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller has spoken against it as well.

“And I think he called this proposal ‘morally repugnant,’” Whyte stated. “And that was actually before what happened in the last hour here where we had council folks suggesting we take money from disabled care for disabled children and put it towards abortion access. I wonder what, what he would say about that now.”

Whyte additionally warned of imaginable felony dangers if town helped fund travel for out-of-state abortions.

Though City Attorney Andy Segovia declined to talk about any felony problems in-depth all the way through open consultation, he stated there’s “absolutely no criminal liability for what the fund, I think, is slated to fund in terms of the array of services the organizations provide.”

However, a 2021 state legislation handed ahead of the overturning of Roe v. Wade permits any individual to sue somebody who “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks. So, whilst there is usually a possibility of a lawsuit, he stated, “It can be mitigated by, again, the scope of services and the way we set up the contract.”

“So, to say that there is risk, I would say ‘yes.’ To say it’s ‘problematic risk,’ I probably wouldn’t characterize it that way,” Segovia stated.

At Whyte’s prompting, council contributors met in the back of closed doorways to talk about the imaginable felony problems in additional intensity.

Given the extent of beef up from different contributors, the fund seems set to be incorporated as a part of the overall array of price range amendments the council will vote on at its assembly at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Additional cash for Animal Care Services, around-the-clock protection from town’s psychological well being reaction crew, and a public housing upkeep fund additionally seem poised to make the overall lower.