SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE: The San Antonio City Council on Thursday approved a $100,000 boost to the controversial Reproductive Justice Fund.
The motion was approved 6-5. Mayor Ron Nirenberg and councilmembers Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, Melissa Cabello Havrda, Dr. Sukh Kaur, Phyllis Viagran and Teri Castillo voted in favor of the item.
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This money could help women travel out-of-state for abortion care. The fund will also cover things like STI testing and emergency contraception. The city has spent $450,000 on legal battles related to the fund.
ORIGINAL: The San Antonio City Council will vote Thursday morning on whether to put another $100,000 into a controversial health fund.
This time, supporters hope money will go toward helping cover out-of-state travel costs for women seeking abortion: one of the reasons the $500,000 Reproductive Justice Fund was created in the first place. It’s also the reason the city has spent nearly as much defending the fund in court despite not having yet spent a dollar for that purpose.
The contracts that council members approved in November with four outside groups were for providing other reproductive health-related services, like free contraception, STI testing and wraparound prenatal support.
Although abortion travel costs were included as part of the city’s request for proposals, staff said only two of the 10 applicants included abortion travel or navigation as part of their proposals. Neither made the final cut in the evaluation process.
Even then, the head of one of those groups told KSAT the portion of their proposal related to abortion was for “information, education, navigation.”
BEAT AIDS Coalition Trust did want transportation for in-town medical visits, Executive Director Michele Durham said, but the group worried funding out-of-state travel for abortion seekers would be illegal.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortions are almost entirely banned in Texas.
The lack of travel assistance in the final contracts frustrated some council members, who pushed for additional funding specifically for that purpose.
On Thursday, the council will vote on whether to order an “expedited procurement” with the original 10 applicants to distribute $100,000 for “downstream services to support reproductive and sexual healthcare services which may include out of state travel.”
“Downstream services” was the term the city used for direct services, including home pregnancy tests, emergency contraception, STI testing and transportation to abortion care.
City staff wrote in agenda documents ahead of Thursday’s meeting that nine of the 10 applicants have indicated an interest in pursuing additional funding, and three of the 10 were interested in pursuing funding for travel for abortion care.
A fourth group indicated interest if the city were to provide legal protection, according to the documents.
Durham told KSAT that her group is cautiously interested but would need reassurances that paying for travel costs was legal and that some of the group’s other public funding wouldn’t be jeopardized by participating.
Another previous applicant, Jane’s Due Process, also told KSAT it plans to include travel costs when it applies for the next round of proposed funding.
Despite travel assistance being something their group does and having helped push for the fund’s creation in 2023, Jane’s Due Process did not include travel costs in its application for the original pot of money.
Youth Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager Ariana Rodriguez said the group had been concerned about attempts to get information on their clients. She said they also figured any funding they could secure would free up money for travel costs.
“If we get money from the city, for example, and that covers resources, that covers our text line and hotline, or Plan B, that opens up more of the money we have for abortion support or for travel,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the group changed its view on applying directly for the travel assistance funding, in part because the Texas legislature is still cracking down on abortion access.
“So this is really the last time that the city can stand up for reproductive justice and make sure their community members feel supported,” Rodriguez said.
Bills filed in both the Texas House and Senate propose banning government entities from using taxpayer resources to provide logistical support for obtaining an abortion or to contract with “abortion assistance entities.”
Rodriguez said the logistical costs to help a woman reach an abortion provider in another state vary case by case, but they are in the thousands of dollars rather than the hundreds.
The $100,000 of additional funding would come out of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District budget, whose Director Claude Jacob has warned that it would require taking it from somewhere else.
LEGAL COSTS
The city was sued almost immediately after the passage of the Reproductive Justice Fund in 2023.
A District Court judge dismissed the lawsuit in April 2024 after the city argued that nothing had actually been spent yet. The groups quickly appealed the decision to the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals, where it’s still pending.
The city has spent $450,000 defending the fund in court, a city spokesman said.
KSAT has not yet independently confirmed that number but has a pending records request with the city for copies of legal invoices from outside counsel.