Thanks to the Austin City Council, Austinites will continue to be forced to fund the killing of pre-born children.
On Tuesday, the city council approved their budget for the next fiscal year, with a deadly new amendment: They will now use $150,000 of citizens’ cash to pay for logistical costs of getting an abortion, such as rides to a facility; hotel rooms; and, ironically, childcare.
The council’s action is the first of its kind for a U.S. city and is one designed to skirt around a new Texas law. Recently enacted Senate Bill 22 makes it illegal for local governments statewide to give citizens’ cash directly to abortion businesses, something Austin City Council has historically done, so now they’re instead funneling the money to the associated logistical costs of killing children.
“We may not be able to fund abortion with city money like New York did, but definitely we knew we could help fund the transportation, the accommodations, the child care people needed,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Executive Director Aimee Arrambide.
John Seago, legislative director at Texas Right to Life, told Texas Scorecard the city council’s action “violates” the “core commonsense principle” of SB 22.
“Taxpayers should not be coerced to benefit the abortion industry that profits off selling elective abortions to Texas women & taking the lives of pre-born children,” he said.
Council members celebrated their decision on social media, saying that despite the new state law, they still found a way to support the killing of children.
“We did good work today!” tweeted Council Member Leslie Pool. “Thank you – sending my deep appreciation to the Lilith Fund and NARAL for standing in support of a woman’s right to own our own destinies. You’re endlessly inspiring to new generations and I thank you for that.”
Sadly, Pool and the city council are helping to kill off those “new generations” of children.
Additionally, Council Member Greg Casar said the council’s decision is “fighting back” against “extremists,” or in other words, those trying to block local governments from killing babies.
“These far right-wing, anti-abortion extremists have created barrier after barrier trying to make abortion impossible to access for our constituents, and we refuse to let that happen,” Casar said.
Casar also hopes the council’s action “provides a model,” “showing the way for other cities to act!”
However, Seago noted that instead of using citizens’ cash to kill babies, Austin could choose to actually help Texas women.
“The City of Austin should emulate the Texas Legislature that allocated $79 million to helping expecting and new parents access social services at maternity homes, adoption agencies, and pregnancy centers,” he said. “Instead, they decided to funnel their citizens’ money to an unjust and predatory industry.”
