{"id":319592,"date":"2024-10-01T12:46:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=319592"},"modified":"2024-09-30T16:32:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T21:32:16","slug":"texas-attorney-general-sues-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/texas-attorney-general-sues-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Attorney General sues City of Austin over abortion fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced last week that he is suing the City of Austin after the city <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/austin-city-council-half-million-abortion-travel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allocated $400,000<\/a> in an abortion travel fund to help its residents kill their preborn children out of state. Texas law currently protects nearly all preborn children from abortion.<\/p>\n<p>The city&#8217;s recently approved budget included the money in a Reproductive Health Grant, which would \u201csupport Austinites traveling to access abortion . . . including support for airfare, gas reimbursements, hotel stays, ride reimbursements, childcare stipends, companion travel, and food.\u201d Paxton said this allocation is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udea8 NEW: I\u2019m suing the City of Austin for illegally appropriating taxpayer funds to pay for out of state abortion travel cost. No city in Texas has the authority to spend taxpayer money in this manner. In this case, the City of Austin is illegally seeking to use public funding to\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lfW1ScsBTi\">https:\/\/t.co\/lfW1ScsBTi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KenPaxtonTX\/status\/1839686497257009598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo city in Texas has the authority to spend taxpayer money in this manner. In this case, the City of Austin is illegally seeking to use public funding to support travel expenses for out-of-state abortions,\u201d he said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-city-austin-illegally-appropriating-taxpayer-funds-pay-out-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>. \u201cThe Texas Constitution prohibits governmental entities from doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paxton&#8217;s announcement comes several weeks after one of the city&#8217;s former Council Members <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/former-austin-city-council-member-abortion-travel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the city on his own. In that suit, Don Zimmerman said it was illegal for the city to \u201cspend taxpayer dollars on abortion-assistance activities.\u201d The suit also\u00a0maintained\u00a0that the city violated the state\u2019s\u00a0gift clause, which prohibits cities from giving money to private individuals unless there is a public purpose.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/reasons-abortion-still-elective-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Study reconfirms that nearly all abortions in the US are still for \u2018elective\u2019 reasons<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Following Paxton&#8217;s announcement, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kvue.com\/article\/news\/politics\/paxton-suing-austin-abortion-travel-fund\/269-7c81638f-6e96-4f0b-a01d-3bde0ba7c523\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blasted the lawsuit<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ken Paxton is once again exploiting the great power of his office to attack and undermine the fundamental rights of women and try to score a few political points in the process,&#8221; Watson said. &#8220;I\u2019m proud the Austin City Council is supporting Austin women as they make their own decisions about their body, their family, their health, their happiness, and their quality of life. I stood up and fought for reproductive rights throughout my time in office, including in the Texas Senate, and I will not back down in City Hall.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/resist-pressure-to-dispense-the-abortion-pill\/\"><b><i>Urge Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and other major chains to resist pressure to dispense the abortion pill<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced last week that he is suing the City of Austin after the city allocated $400,000 in an abortion travel fund to help its residents kill their preborn children out of state. Texas law currently protects nearly all preborn children from abortion. The city&#8217;s recently approved budget included the money [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":317825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Texas Attorney General sues City of Austin over abortion fund<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas Attorney General files lawsuit against City of Austin. &quot;No city in Texas has the authority to spend taxpayer money in this manner.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/texas-attorney-general-sues-austin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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