Like Apple and Yahoo, some deep blue cities in bright red states want to help cover costs for women seeking to cross state lines for abortions. But unlike those private companies, the municipalities plan to spend taxpayer dollars.
That may be a problem in states that ban the use of public funds to provide or assist with abortions, a scenario now playing out in Missouri and Ohio.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt stepped in after the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted last week to direct $1.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to create the Reproductive Equity Fund, designed to provide travel and other “logistical support” for abortion.