Members of Austin City Council announced an initiative to use taxpayer dollars to drive women to and from their abortion appointments. The city might grant up to $150,000 to anti-Life organizations, like The Lilith Fund, that pay for transportation, lodging, and childcare for women seeking an abortion.
Austin City Council seeks to circumvent a recently passed state law that prohibits taxpayer money from supporting abortion businesses and their affiliates. Council members proposed a radical budget amendment that would funnel $150,000 through the Austin Public Health Department, not to fund abortions directly, but to fund organizations that abet the abortion industry by providing transportation and other services to women seeking abortions. Members of the city council said they crafted the pro-abortion policy specifically to thumb their noses at the Pro-Life towns that have recently pursued “Mother and Unborn Child Sanctuary City” ordinances that ban abortion.
Austin Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza is one of the council members supporting this budget move. She predictably concealed her support for abortion among euphemistic endorsements of public access to “the full range of reproductive health care services.” She said, “Promoting equity in our city has been a top priority for me, and this is a real, tangible way to level the playing field and promote health equity.” Pro-Life Texans who understand the ugly truth about abortion actually recognize the irony of her claims to equity, and that characterizing the practice of a bigger, stronger person taking the life of a smaller, weaker person is anything but achieving equity or justice in health care.
The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 22 during the Regular Session of the 86th Legislature because the majority of Texans do not want their tax dollars being used in any way, shape, or form to support killing innocent human beings. Although Texas Right to Life worked to pass stronger language in the legislation, the message is clear: No public funds at the state or local level should be directed toward an industry that literally rips human beings limb from limb in their most vulnerable stages. Indeed, SB 22 went so far as to include language explicitly clarifying that cities and counties may prohibit abortion within their jurisdictions. Contrary to the lies of these pro-abortion city council members, abortion is not health care because every single abortion causes the death of a human person.
Pro-abortion groups such as The Lilith Fund, whose stated reason for existence is to raise money to push abortion onto low-income women, collaborated to lobby for this gross abuse of taxpayer dollars in a petty response to the sincere efforts of Pro-Life towns across Texas to become “Mother and Unborn Child Sanctuary Cities.” A Lilith Fund representative told the pro-abortion Austin Chronicle that Waskom’s courageous ordinance served as the inspiration behind this latest anti-Life exploitation of taxpayer funds. “This was the right moment to push hard in a proactive way,” she claimed.
But The Lilith Fund is right about one thing: Pro-Life communities must seize the opportunity currently before them. Pro-Lifers must not cede ground at any level of government to those who would irreparably harm the women and preborn children in their communities.
This grotesque news out of Austin is another example of the abortion industry exploiting taxpayers to profit off vulnerable women and kill preborn children. Is your city doing everything possible to block their efforts and protect your preborn neighbors?
Contact Texas Right to Life to find out how you can make your town a “Mother and Unborn Child Sanctuary City!”
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