Pro-Life Group Sues to Stop Albuquerque From Funding Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 21, 2023   |   12:17PM   |   Albuquerque, New Mexico

An Albuquerque taxpayer and a local pro-life charity just filed a lawsuit accusing the city council of giving a $250,000 donation to the abortion chain Planned Parenthood in violation of the New Mexico Constitution.

Last spring, the Albuquerque City Council voted to give local taxpayers’ money to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains after news broke about a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft showing the court overturning Roe v. Wade.

“New Mexico’s constitution prevents politicians from using taxpayer funds like their own personal piggy banks,” said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing city resident Paul Gessing and Care Net of Albuquerque in the case.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the lawsuit asserts that the Albuquerque City Council unlawfully donated $250,000 to the abortion chain in direct response to the leak.

The case quotes city Councilwoman Tammy Fiebelkorn who said the funding affirms the council’s “respect and support for women’s reproductive freedoms” as “extremists” are “poised to take away women’s rights and control of their own bodies.”

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Suhr said the council members’ statements and actions show that the money was “pure politics.”

He told CNA:

Suhr said there is a clear distinction between legitimate government contracts and gifts and donations. He said “taxpayers are guaranteed a value for their money” and that a contract is different than when a politician decides to “abuse taxpayer money to make a gift or donation.” In this instance, he added, the council wanted “to make a political statement about abortion.”

If the council had intended to provide funding for specific service, he said officials “could have had an open request for proposals, but they didn’t.”

Paula Gonzales, executive director of Care Net, said her organization and others that serve families in need did not have the opportunity to apply for such funding.

“Care Net provides essential services to pregnant women and newborn moms, but we were never given a fair shot at these funds,” Gonzales said. “The government cannot give money without disclosure, discussion and agreement by the taxpayers. The NM Constitution is very clear in this area. That is why this lawsuit is important to us as it puts the government leaders on notice to the state’s established law.”

New Mexico has some of the most pro-abortion laws in the country. The state allows unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to birth and forces taxpayers to pay for their deaths.

Last year, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a supposed Catholic, promised to spend $10 million of taxpayers’ money to build a new abortion facility near the Texas border. Texas laws protect unborn babies from abortion.

Other Democrat governors have launched similar spending measures to expand the killing of unborn babies in abortions in their states. In contrast, Republican-led states are working to expand support services to help pregnant and parenting families.