In the local May 6 election, residents of San Antonio will vote on Proposition A to decriminalize abortion in the City Charter.
Proposition A, misleadingly referred to as the “Justice Charter”, was brought by activist groups who gathered enough signatures to place their massive, 13-page amendment on the ballot. The measure is so controversial that three council members, including two liberal council members, left the dais to avoid the February vote to even place it on the ballot. Proposition A contains a number of different policies, including the decriminalization of marijuana and some other regulations of the police force. But the centerpiece of this proposition is the decriminalization of abortion.
Specifically, Proposition A would prohibit San Antonio police officers from making any arrests or conducting any investigations in connection with abortion violations. The only exceptions would be when the woman who got the abortion was coerced or when the abortionist was criminally negligent in performance of that abortion. Essentially, these activists want to ignore every Pro-Life state law that protects preborn babies from abortion.
The proposition contains very similar language to a non-binding resolution passed by the San Antonio City Council in August 2022. Soon after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, several urban liberal cities throughout the state passed resolutions and ordinances of varying language, San Antonio among them, expressing their disdain for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision and seeking any way to protect abortion. Among those cities, San Antonio is now the first to try and decriminalize abortion through the ballot. Yet, it is by no means the first city to approach the abortion issue through a citywide vote. In November 2022, four cities in Texas voted on and passed ordinances to become Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.
Thankfully, San Antonio’s Proposition A would be completely unenforceable if passed. It would not make abortion any more or less illegal than it is now, since it does not rely on duly-passed legislation, as do the Pro-Life Sanctuary City for the Unborn measures. Our Pro-Life laws are enacted at the state level, meaning they supersede anything passed at the city level.
The San Antonio city attorney even admits on the city’s website that this amendment to the City Charter would be unenforceable. Like the City Council resolution from August, it would be largely symbolic, signaling that the city stands with anti-Life activists over innocent preborn children. Nonetheless, pro-abortion efforts like these demonstrate why we need to fully enforce our Pro-Life laws throughout the state by holding lawless district attorneys and municipalities accountable. Texas Right to Life is working hard in the Texas Capitol to advance legislation to do just that.
San Antonio residents must vote against Proposition A this coming election, to stop efforts to decriminalize abortion and put preborn children and their mothers in danger.
Early voting: April 24 – May 2, 2023
Election day: May 6, 2023
For information on voting, click here.
San Antonio friends, Vote NO to Prop A to ensure babies in Democrat-run cities are as protected from abortion as those in other areas of Texas!
Pol. ad paid for by Texas Right to Life Committee, Inc.