SAN ANTONIO – After more than a year of debates and a lawsuit, San Antonio City Council voted to approve the Reproductive Justice Fund.
This fund was created in 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. Initially, the fund intended to include out-of-state travel costs for abortion seekers due to abortions almost being entirely banned in Texas.
However, out-of-state travel funds for abortion seekers — a major driver that led to the fund’s creation in the first place — didn’t make the cut.
What is being funded includes access to reproductive health workshops, sex education in high schools, access to contraceptives, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and prenatal care.
The passage comes after 13 months of council debate and a lawsuit leveled last fall. The lawsuit was eventually thrown out by a Bexar County district judge earlier this year.
Metro Health sought proposals from different San Antonio organizations. Ultimately, they found the need for access to contraception, prenatal care and STI testing were bigger needs than abortion access.
The groups set to benefit from the half-million dollar fund include Empower House SA, Latched Support, Inc., San Antonio AIDS Foundation and the Young Women’s Christian Association of San Antonio.
When the fund was discussed last month, city staff said only two of the 10 applicants included abortion access travel costs in their proposals: BEAT AIDS Coalition Trust and Parenting Plus.
However, the city deemed both groups lacked the experience to receive out-of-state, abortion-related funding. Neither made the final cut for fund recommendation.
Several council members who supported the fund expressed their disappointment that ultimately the fund left out services for those seeking out-of-state abortions, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Nirenberg said he supports future discussions about how to create funds to support out-of-state abortion in another way.
“There is a service that is not being funded through these dollars, and that is travel services for abortion for out-of-state,” Nirenberg said. “That being said, that’s been the source of all the controversy. I would support a conversation or a discussion after this to allocate dollars specifically toward those services. I do believe we are missing parts of the intent that was initiated (by) this particular fund, which again, does not change what is being funded today.”
The Reproductive Justice Fund will be available through Nov. 30, 2025.
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