AUSTIN — Texas abortion funds filed a lawsuit Tuesday that seeks protections to resume financing people’s out-of-state travel for the procedure.
Most funds, which help women pay for an abortion or associated costs, paused their work just before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and triggered an effective abortion ban in Texas.
The lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton and several local prosecutors argues that enforcing anti-abortion restrictions against the funds would violate the rights to free speech and travel.
In their suit, the eight abortion funds asked a federal judge to stop the officials from prosecuting their staff, donors or volunteers for their role in any abortions that occur outside the state.
“Abortion access is critical,” the filing said. The groups “all want to resume their prior activities as permitted by the United States Constitution and seek intervention from this Court to allow them (to) do so safely.”
While the suit centers on the funds’ activities, it could also help clarify looming legal questions about the state’s abortion bans, such as whether people can be penalized for helping someone get the procedure across state lines.
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the Republican, who is up for a third term in November, has pledged to aggressively enforce the state’s anti-abortion bans. A patchwork of laws are in play, some of them conflicting.
A recent court decision revived a century-old abortion ban, and on Thursday a new law kicks in that makes performing the procedure a felony punishable by lengthy prison time and six-figure fines.
The lawsuit says Texas legislators have threatened that abortion funds and their donors will be prosecuted for murder, and asserted that pre-Roe laws can be applied retroactively to work the funds have already done.
“They cannot safely resume the exercise of their own constitutional rights until the threat of criminal prosecution for doing so is eliminated,” the suit said.
New Mexico is the only neighboring state that still allows abortions, meaning pregnant Texans who want the procedure must travel long distances.
The Guttmacher Institute, which promotes reproductive health and rights, estimates the average drive is 250 miles one way. The burden falls hardest on communities of color, rural Texans and low-income women, who experts said already face the biggest obstacles in accessing abortion.
The only exception in the state’s abortion ban is to save the life of the pregnant person.
The North Texas Equal Access Fund and the Dallas-based Afiya Center both signed on to the lawsuit. The attorney representing the groups, Jennifer Ecklund, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
