UPDATE: The replacement measure approved Wednesday gives $200,000 to Texas organizations providing women’s health care.
In response to the new Texas abortion law, the Portland City Council approved a resolution that does not include a previously proposed ban on travel and business with that state on Wednesday, Sept. 15.
Instead, the measure gives $200,000 dollars to organizations that support women’s health care. It is the final item on the council’s Sept. 15 agenda.
The vote was 4-to-1 with Commissioner Mingus Mappas dissenting. Mapps said he believe that “allocating $200,000 of Portland taxpayer dollars to fund reproductive care for women from Texas is a highly unusual expenditure which does not advance a meaningful legal or legislative challenge to Texas’ unconstitutional anti-abortion law.”
Wheeler defended the allocation, saying, “With regard to the criticism that this is money that should not be spent, I want to be clear, that once people make the decision to come…