FL: Lawmakers threaten to defund St. Petersburg over plan to pay for abortion travel
wo Florida state representatives sent a letter to the city of St. Petersburg threatening to oppose any state funding until the City Council drops a plan to allocate $50,000 to the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund.
The letter signifies the left-leaning city’s first brush with preemption under Mayor Ken Welch’s administration.
Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, and Mike Beltran, R-Riverview, sent a letter Wednesday to Welch and City Council member Gina Driscoll, the chairperson of the Health, Energy, Resiliency and Sustainability committee that greenlit the proposal.
“Not only is the City’s contemplated assistance to the (Tampa Bay Abortion Fund) unlawful, it is a wasteful and frivolous use of tax dollars,” they wrote. “The City obviously has no need for any further funding from Florida taxpayers if the City intends to spend money in violation of state law.”
Last month, that committee advanced a proposal to allocate $50,000 at council member Richie Floyd’s request to the abortion fund to pay for residents’ out-of-state travel expenses for abortions. It also passed a resolution affirming the right to privacy in women’s health care decisions.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/st-petersburg/2023/03/24/lawmakers-threaten-defund-st-petersburg-over-plan-pay-abortion-travel/
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