The Portland, Oregon, city council will vote this Wednesday on a resolution that would ban city employees’ official travel to Texas and prevent any trade from occurring with that state, in response to that state’s recently imposed ban on abortions beyond the sixth week of pregnancy.
The Texas law allows residents to sue other individuals, including abortion providers, if they help a person to procure an abortion in the state, for amounts of up to $10,000 per instance. Earlier this month, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block implementation of the law, accepting a controversial legal argument that suggests it can remain in place until an individual affected by the law in Texas files a counter lawsuit against someone trying to sue them.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he and the city council would pass an ordinance banning city expenditures from reaching the state of Texas by way of trade because of that state’s newly enacted abortion ban. Such a measure, if it passes, would ban business with the state until it “withdraws its unconstitutional ban on abortion or until it is overturned in court,” the mayor’s office said in a press release.
Wheeler hopes that other communities across the country will impose similar bans on Texas in order to put financial pressure on lawmakers there to change the law.
“We urge other leaders and elected bodies around the nation to join us in condemning the actions of the Texas state government,” the press release added.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) responded to news of Portland’s proposed boycott of the state by calling the city’s leaders “depraved,” and describing the motion as “a complete joke.”
“A boycott will hurt them, not us. Texas’ economy is stronger than ever,” Patrick added.
However, aside from the possibility of other cities, counties and municipal governments taking action against Texas, the state may face other economic fallouts over its abortion ban. A recent survey suggested that the state may face a “brain drain” of new talent in its workforce due to the new restrictions on reproductive rights.
The poll, conducted by PerryUndem, found that two-thirds (66 percent) of college-educated workers wouldn’t relocate for a job if it’s in a state that prohibits abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. Half of the respondents said they’d consider moving out of a state that did so if they were already living there.
Americans overall are opposed to the type of bans that Texas recently implemented. An NBC News Survey from last month found that 54 percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal always or most of the time, while only 34 percent said it should be illegal in most cases but allowed in some circumstances, such as rape or incest. (The Texas law, however, is so restrictive that it doesn’t even allow for those exceptions.) Only 8 percent of respondents in that poll said abortion should be banned in all circumstances.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.