Legislators Take Direct Aim at Austin's Support for Abortion

[TexasTowelie]

A pair of bills by state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels (Senate Bill 650) and Rep. Candy Noble, R-Allen, (House Bill 1173) would prohibit local governments from funding any logistical support for abortion, a direct shot at Austin.

In a historic move, the City Council invested $150,000 in logistical support for abortion access in 2019, said to be the first effort of its kind by any city in the nation. Last year, they infused that investment, meant to help low-income women overcome the myriad barriers they face seeking abortion care, with another $250,000 reallocated from the Austin Police Department budget. The bold provision of direct financial support pushed back against the wave of local anti-choice ordinances passed by small towns across Texas and the constant barrage of attacks on abortion rights from the Legislature.

Naturally, Campbell and Noble could not let Austin’s gesture go unchallenged. The bills – which bring together the GOP majority in the Lege’s obsessions with punishing both Austin and women exercising their constitutional rights – target specific actions provided by abortion support groups that Austin helps to fund. These include child care, transportation, lodging, food, counseling, and – broadly – “any other service that facilitates the provision of an abortion.” The Legislature back in 2011 banned local government funds being used to pay for abortion care itself, a move targeted at Travis County’s Central Health.. The attorney general, on behalf of the state, would be able to sue cities that violate the new statute.

In 2019, the Lege passed SB 22, also authored by Campbell and carried in the House by Noble, which prevented local governments from entering into any agreement with an abortion provider or affiliate – a rebuke of Austin’s decades-long nominal lease of city-owned property to Planned Parenthood to house its clinic on E. Seventh Street at Chicon. That clinic does not provide abortion care, but Council and Planned Parenthood only evaded the statute after quickly adopting a 20-year extension to the lease before the law took effect. However, the law still blocks the provider from any collaboration with the city for community outreach, education, or health services. It also put the kibosh on Austin ISD’s adopting an updated sex education curriculum authored by a Massachusetts PP affiliate; the district instead wrote its new teaching plan from scratch.

Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2021-02-12/legislators-take-direct-aim-at-austins-support-for-abortion/

[catrose]

1. We're freezing to death, and they're pulling this stuff.

[Janbdwl72]

2. And would you realistically expect anything else?

You sure nailed that one right. Our state legislators are a joke. We are trying to endure one of the worst periods of below freezing weather in the state's history.

So what do our alleged geniuses in Austin do? They waste our time on these worthless emotional issues instead of trying to address what is by far the most important matter currently challenging the state.

They are clueless on how to regulate the state's utilities and how to insure this horrific weather crisis won't rear its ugly head in the future.

Too bad the state legislature's meeting rooms can't go without electricity for an hour tomorrow so they would have to tolerate what too many of our fellow Texans are facing this week.

[catrose]

3. No, no other expectations from the Party of Life