San Antonio – This is a developing story and will be updated.
About half the San Antonio City Council is pushing to find more money for the city’s Reproductive Justice Fund, which — this time — they want to actually fund travel costs for abortion seekers.
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The council passed the nearly $500,000 worth of contracts for the controversial fund on Nov. 21. Despite the desire to help women seeking legal, out-of-state abortions being part of the reasoning behind the fund’s creation, abortion travel costs were not part of the final package council voted on.
Instead, the four groups receiving funding will provide other reproductive health-related services, like free contraception, STI testing and wraparound prenatal support.
Abortion travel costs were included as part of the city’s request for proposals, but city 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.
On Friday, five city council members asked Mayor Ron Nirenberg for an additional $100,000 for “downstream” funding — the section of the Reproductive Justice Fund request for proposal that included travel costs.
The Nov. 22 memo was sent by Councilwoman Melissa Cabello-Havrda, who is expected to enter the 2025 race for mayor, and co-signed by Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1), Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3), and Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5).
The memo proposes working directly with groups that have already applied for the fund, as well as those who helped establish it “to ensure that the recipient(s) of the funds can provide the targeted services required to meet this time sensitive and crucial need.”
Read the Nov. 22 memo to Mayor Ron Nirenberg below:
Though the memo does not specifically mention abortion travel costs, a Monday news release from Cabello Havrda’s campaign made it clear that was the intent.
“San Antonio’s Reproductive Justice Fund was meant to reflect our community’s priorities—health equity, reproductive autonomy, and access to comprehensive care,” Cabello Havrda (D6) said in a news release Monday. “While the initial allocations provided valuable services, they fell short in addressing abortion travel support, which is critical for those most impacted by Texas’s restrictive reproductive health care laws.”
Nirenberg, who has previously expressed support for finding additional funding for this purpose, sent the five council members a response Monday.
“I concur that the inability to provide downstream direct services was a missed opportunity, and I hope that we an further address their provision,” he wrote, before asking the council members to submit their proposal as a Council Consideration Request through the regular process.
Anti-abortion groups sued the city in October 2023, shortly after the fund was included in the FY 2024 budget. A Bexar County District Court judge dismissed the case in April after the city argued that no money had been spent yet.
The groups appealed the decision to Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals, but no decision has been made.