Texas Attorney General Ken Pax­ton filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of San Antonio for unlawfully using public funds to subsidize out-of-state abortion travel. This follows a similar injunction filed against the city of Austin in September.

The San Antonio City Council recently approved $100,000 towards the city’s Reproductive Justice Fund (“the fund”) in a 6-5 split vote. The funds will be allocated toward “downstream services,” which includes travel expenses for women seeking legal abortions.

Friday’s lawsuit claims that the city appropriated money to its Reproductive Justice Fund specifically to pay for travel for out-of-state abortions. The suit points to a section of the state constitution known as the “gift clause.” The Texas Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to mean that state funds can only be transferred to private entities for expenditures that benefit the public and serve a legitimate public interest. The lawsuit requests a temporary injunction to block the funding allocation.

Supporters of the fund argue that its services will help the residents of San Antonio. After voting to approve the funding allocation, councilmember and mayoral candidate Melissa Cabello Havrda said, “I got one job up here, and it’s to protect the people that I represent.” Ariana Rodriguez, the youth advocacy and community engagement manager for the group Jane’s Due Process, says of the money: “It is going to allow people to get the health care that they need and want, regardless if that’s abortion care, Plan B, STI testing… There’s so many things that this is going to help fund.”

Paxton accused San Antonio of defying Texas law by using taxpayer dollars to fund “abortion tourism.” Paxton elaborated:

Beyond being an egregious misuse of public funds, it’s an attack on the pro-life values of our state. I will not stand by while rogue cities use tax dollars to circumvent state law and take the innocent lives of unborn children.

Following a state law that prohibits almost all abortions that went into effect in 2022, Texas has been aggressively pursuing a strategy of enforcement through litigation. This past December, the state filed a lawsuit against a New York telemedicine doctor for providing abortion drugs to a Texas resident. In March, Paxton announced the arrest of a midwife for performing abortions in the Houston area. This latter action marked the first time that a health care provider in Texas was criminally charged under the state’s new abortion laws.

Paxton is asking the court for a declaration that the defendants are violating the state constitution’s gift clause by spending taxpayer money on support for out-of-state abortions; a temporary and permanent injunction that prohibits the city from spending taxpayer money on support for such out-of-state abortions; and temporary and permanent injunctions prohibiting the city “and any of its officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, representatives, or any other persons in active concert or participation with them” from continuing to implement the allocation and expenditure of taxpayer dollars for support for the out-of-state abortions.