AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — A group of Austin council members want to try to circumvent prohibitions on abortion in the pro-life Lone Star State. The state has a trigger law that will ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is reversed.
José “Chito” Vela has prepared resolution for the liberal city to consider that “restricts city funds from being used to essentially investigate any kind of alleged abortion crimes,” according to comments the councilman made. The resolution would “make the investigation of any abortion-related crime the lowest priority for our police department,” Vela said, according to The Guardian.
“We need them focusing on historically classic criminal activity – not politically disfavored groups that factions in the government want to harass and punish,” Vela said. “That’s the real core of what we’re trying to do.”
Vela will hold the legislation until the expected reversal of Roe v. Wade in June. The Supreme Court is expected to reversed the 1973 decision when it releases its official ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson case that concerns Mississippi’s ban on abortions at 15 weeks.
Vela has titled his proposed law the “Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone” or GRACE Act.
The city has a record of promoting and paying for abortions, according to Texas Right to Life.
“The so-called ‘GRACE Act’ would not be the first radically anti-Life measure the Austin City Council has pursued,” the pro-life organization wrote on its website.
“In 2018, the council renewed a contract flagrantly mismanaging taxpayer resources by leasing public property, valued at over $2 million, to Planned Parenthood for the price of just $1 per year,” Texas Right to Life wrote. “In 2020, the council slashed funding to the police to redirect much of that taxpayer money to the abortion industry. Finally, in 2021, the Austin City Council approved a resolution instructing the city’s legal department to support lawsuits against the Texas Heartbeat Act at taxpayers’ expense.”
“The approved budget cut $23 million from the Austin Police Department’s funding and shifted that money to pay for ‘health and social services’ instead, unsurprisingly including ‘abortion access,'” LifeSiteNews reported in 2020 on the budget cuts.
The Texas pro-life group said that the push to discourage enforcement of the state’s abortion laws reinforces the necessity of private enforcement mechanisms.
“For years, anti-life politicians have bragged that they will ignore their public duty and not enforce Pro-Life laws if Roe is overturned,” the group wrote. “This serves as an important reminder that the private enforcement mechanism, which made the Texas Heartbeat Act so successful, must be applied to all pro-life laws. Private citizens must rise to occasion to enforce Pro-Life laws and save lives especially when politicians refuse.”