'Austin Will Not Be Complicit': Texas City Has Plan to Defend Abortion Rights

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

48% :José "Chito" Vela, an attorney who represents District 4 after winning a special election earlier this year, is leading the council's plans for the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone (GRACE) Act, which would effectively decriminalize the procedure by directing the Austin Police Department to make alleged crimes related to abortion its lowest priority and restricting the use of city funds and staff for investigations.
45% :GOP state lawmakers have ramped up their already-unprecedented assault on reproductive freedom this year ahead of the anticipated high court decision, including Louisiana legislators considering a bill that would criminalize abortion as homicide as well as Oklahoma outlawing nearly all abortions and -- like Texas -- deputizing private citizens to enforce the ban.
44% :"Especially in Texas, we believe the GRACE Act is the best protection we can offer to Austin residents who will be targeted by the trigger ban.""We need them focusing on historically classic criminal activity -- not politically disfavored groups that factions in the government want to harass and punish," Vela told The Guardian of local law enforcement.
42% : Last year, the Legislature passed a so-called "trigger law" that would go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, making performing abortion a felony.
40% :Greer Donley, a University of Pittsburgh Law School professor specializing in reproductive healthcare, told the outlet that "we live in a state where abortion is going to remain legal in the short term, at least after Roe goes down.
37% : Politico noted Monday that "Radnor Township in Pennsylvania, where abortion is likely to remain legal because Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has promised to veto any Republican-passed bans, recently approved an ordinance protecting abortion rights."
33% : Texas is just one of the 26 states where abortion is expected to be criminalized due to trigger bans and other measures if Roe is overturned, according to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.

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