Texas Supreme Court sends Zimmerman lawsuit against Austin over abortion funds back to trial court
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday vacated all previous rulings on a lawsuit over the city of Austin’s abortion access funds and sent the case back to the trial court.
The opinion indicates that because the lower court rulings were issued before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, the trial court needs to reconsider the case under the new circumstances, in which abortion is now illegal in Texas.
Former Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman filed the lawsuit against the city in 2019 after the council voted to allocate $150,000 of the 2020 budget for logistical funding — such as travel, lodging and child care — for people seeking abortions.
Rather than paying for abortion procedures themselves, the money supports access to abortion in an attempt to circumvent a state law passed in the 2019 legislative session that banned local governments from using taxpayer money to fund abortion services, providers or affiliates.
Zimmerman argued that, although Roe v. Wade was still in effect at the time, the city’s budget allocation still violated a state law from 1961 that placed a criminal penalty on anyone who “furnishes the means” of someone getting an abortion, because the state had never formally repealed the statute.
A Travis County district judge ruled against Zimmerman, who appealed. An appeals court then affirmed the decision of the lower court. In 2021, Zimmerman and his attorneys filed a petition for review with the Texas Supreme Court.
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The landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 provided constitutional protection for abortion in the United States. The legal precedent had been held up for nearly 50 years before the high court overturned Roe in June with its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
In the opinion issued Friday, the state Supreme Court put the case back before a district judge to consider whether Zimmerman still has a claim, given the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case.
The court did not make a decision on any of the issues argued in the case.
“The city appreciates the court’s careful consideration of the case and the issues it presented,” a spokesperson for the city of Austin said in a statement to the American-Statesman.
Attorneys for Zimmerman declined to comment on the record about the ruling.
Zimmerman, who represented District 6 in Northwest Austin on the City Council from 2015 to 2017, ran as a Republican in unsuccessful campaigns for the Texas House in 2020 and in a special election for a Texas Senate seat in 2020.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Supreme Court sends Zimmerman abortion suit back to trial court
