by Kate Anderson
Pro-life advocates sued the city of San Antonio Tuesday over its “Reproductive Justice Fund,” which they allege violates Texas law by using taxpayer dollars to aid women getting abortions out of state, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The city council approved a $500,000 fund in September as a part of its 2024 budget to assist reproductive health organizations and one member of the city council expressed hopes that it would help women get abortions “where they are legal,” according to KENS 5, a CBS News affiliate. The lawsuit filed by Texas Right to Life (TRL), as well as the Texas Leadership Coalition and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, argues that pro-abortion groups will use the fund to pay for a woman to go outside the state to get an abortion in violation of Texas law, according to court documents.
“We will not allow the city of San Antonio to give taxpayer money to criminal organizations that engage in abortion trafficking and disregard the Pro-Life laws of our state,” said John Seago, president of TRL. “We will be taking discovery from every one of these abortion funds to expose their violations of state law and the criminal activities of their members and donors. Any other city in Texas that tries to give taxpayer money to abortion funds or abortion-assistance organizations will be met with a similar lawsuit.”
Texas law prohibits any state citizen from “knowingly procur[ing]” an abortion, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Groups such as Jane’s Due Process and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, which advocated for the San Antonio fund, openly claim to help women get abortions out of state and would be eligible to receive money from the new fund, according to the lawsuit.
“Any grant of taxpayer money to Jane’s Due Process, Avow, the Buckle Bunnies Fund, Sueños Sin Froteras, and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity violates article 4512.1, because it aids or abets the criminal activities of these organizations,” the lawsuit reads. “That includes grants to these organizations even if the money is earmarked for non-abortion purposes because any such grant aids and abets their criminal activities by freeing up money and resources for the ‘procurement’ of drug-induced abortions.”
TRL further argues that in some cases women who receive a chemical abortion will take the first pill outside of the state before returning to Texas to take the final dose that induces the abortion.
“Every abortion fund or abortion-assistance organization that aids or abets drug-induced abortions in which the pregnant woman swallows either of the two abortion-inducing drugs in Texas, or in which the pregnant woman expels her unborn child in Texas, is a criminal organization, even if the drugs are dispensed by an out-of-state abortion provider,” the lawsuit reads.
The Buckle Bunnies Fund (TBBF), another group that advocated for the “Reproductive Justice Fund,” helps women who perform a self-managed medicated abortion or “self-managed abortion,” according to Montoya Frazier, the executive director and founder of TBBF. On its website, TBBF says that it cannot “talk about what people *should* do or instruct them to do anything” but lists resources for women considering a self-managed abortion.
The lawsuit states aiding or abetting self-managed abortions is illegal under Texas law, which says that the definition of murder includes the “intentional killing of ‘an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.’” As a result, TRL claims that TBBF’s use of San Antonio’s fund for self-managed abortions would be illegal and make the group a “criminal organization.”
Seago told the DCNF that several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are San Antonio residents, who were “appalled” that their money was going to be used by Texas groups for out-of-state abortions.
“We have some pro-life, taxpaying citizens who not only want to see their city embrace pro-life values but are just appalled that their taxes are going directly to break the law and send women out-of-state or help them access illegal abortions in the state,” Seago said. “If the city of San Antonio is partnering with these organizations, that is a huge problem. If they’re going to be giving them money, that extends the aiding and abetting strategy, and puts the city of San Antonio as one of these illegal operators.”
TRL is asking the court to declare that the fund is “invalid” and “‘inconsistent with . . . the general laws enacted by the Legislature of this State’ under article XI, section 5 of the state constitution,” according to the lawsuit. The group also requested a temporary injunction to prevent the dispersal of the funding for the duration of the lawsuit.
The city of San Antonio, Jane’s Due Process, Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity and TBBF did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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Kate Anderson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
