Dallas City Council Passes Resolution to Minimize Abortion Ruling’s Local Impact

The Dallas City Council approved a resolution proposed to direct city staff to limit government resources used for abortion-related investigations.

Dallas, which passed it Aug. 10 with a 13-1 vote, is one of several Texas cities — such as Denton and Austin — to take on a reproductive rights resolution. 

“It is our responsibility as elected officials to do everything we can at the local level to protect bodily autonomy and uphold reproductive rights, especially as our state continues to undermine them,” said council member Adam Bazaldua, who drafted the resolution, during the meeting.

The resolution instructs City Manager T.C. Broadnax to not use city resources to investigate whether someone had an abortion — except for instances when law enforcemeent needs to investigate criminal negligence or ccoercion against a pregnant person. 

Broadnax and Casey Burgess, an executive assistant city attorney, did not have concerns with the council’s decision to vote on the resolution. Police Chief Eddie Garcia said that similar to other cities with similar resolutions, his department doesn’t yet know what report procedure will look like because they haven’t gotten guidelines from the state. 

The one council member in opposition was Adam McGough, who tried to delay the vote for more time to look into legal ramifications and determine how it would be enforced. He also shared about his 14-year-old son Cooper because when his wife was pregnant, doctors encouraged the couple to terminate the pregnancy for health concerns. They did not follow the medical instructions and their son is now thriving, he said.

“This [resolution] is a failure in leadership and a failure in policy,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of negative implications from it.”

Council member Paula Blackmon said that although she thanks McGough for sharing his story, getting to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy is the purpose of the resolution.

“You had the opportunity to have that discussion with your provider and make a choice,” Blackmon said.

Brooadnax will report back to the council by Dec. 14 to share how the resolution is applied to local policy as directed by the resolution.