San Antonio City Council approves $100,000 for abortion travel support amid ongoing debate over fund allocation.
SAN ANTONIO — Thursday, the San Antonio City Council agreed to use $100,000 dollars to help fund travel to abortion care, six months after deciding how to allocate half a million dollars of General Fund dollars nicknamed the ‘Reproductive Justice Fund.’
The Reproductive Justice Fund was born in 2023, shortly after Texas passed a near-total abortion law. When councilmembers decided in November how to allocate the fund, none of that Reproductive Justice Fund money was distributed to help women travel out of state to get an abortion, the possibility of which has been the dominant subject of debate among council members. Later that month, five city councilmembers signed onto a memo addressed to Mayor Ron Nirenberg pushing for an additional $100,000 to be added to fund travel to abortion care.
Instead, the bulk of the fund was used for providing prenatal support for 100 people in the form of doulas, mental health services, midwife visits, rent and utility assistance. The rest was used for providing prenatal support for 100 people in the form of doulas, mental health services, midwife visits, rent and utility assistance.
Four organizations have already expressed interest in using the funds for travel to abortion care, including the Beat AIDS Coalition Trust, Jane’s Due Process, Suenos Sin Fronteras de Tejas, and the Young Women’s Christian Association of San Antonio.
For the members of Jane’s Due Process, the issue is emotional. Before the city council meeting, a memorial was held with mariachi to remember the women who had lost their lives due to a lack of abortion care.
“People often think, people just want abortions because they want one,” said Ariana Rodriguez, Youth Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager for Jane’s Due Process. “There’s so many reasons people have abortions, and no matter what that reason is, people should be able to get that care. It’s not just that we care about abortion rights. We care about people being able to exist and thrive in our communities, and that means they need the care that they want.”
But the issue isn’t without controversy. Councilman Marc Whyte was one of five city council members who voted against the proposal.
“Here we are today, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of our citizens’ money to send women out of state to receive abortion services,” Councilman Marc Whyte said when the issue was debated back in June. “This is the municipal government gone wild.”
The four others include council members John Courage, Manny Pelaez, Adriana Rocha Garcia, and Marina Alderete Gavito.
“I don’t think it’s something I would be supportive of, spending city tax dollars in enabling a woman to go and have an abortion,” Courage said during a debate last April.