| UNFAIR PARK | Limited In- vestigations A new act regulates the use of city resources to investigate abortions and other pregnancy outcomes. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND T he Dallas City Council has passed a resolution to limit the use of city resources to investi- gate potential abortion-related offenses. Last Wednesday, council members voted 13-1 in favor of the resolution. The vote makes Dallas the latest city to pass such a resolution. City councils in Aus- tin and Denton recently passed similar mea- sures. The measure says that “access to safe and legal abortion is a major factor in the long- term health, safety, and quality of life of pregnant people.” Known as the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone (GRACE) Act, the measure will restrict city resources from being used to conduct surveillance or other- wise investigate abortions or other preg- nancy outcomes that violate Texas’ ban on the procedure. The resolution includes a handful of ex- ceptions. For instance, a city employee can pass on information related to the outcome of a pregnancy or an abortion in order to comply with state or federal law. City em- ployees can also relay such information if it’s done to protect a patient’s reproductive rights. Speaking by phone the day before the vote, City Council member Adam Bazaldua said: “It’s important to emphasize the fact that we have much more important things to spend our resources on within the Dallas Police Department.” Council member Adam McGough, who represents District 10, cast the sole vote against the proposal. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, effectively allowing states to decide on the legality of abortion, several district attorney offices around Texas, including in Dallas County, said they would not prosecute abortion-related charges. Speaking to Dallas City Council ahead of the vote last Wednesday, Michelle Ander- son, an associate at The Afiya Center advo- cacy group, called on council members to pass the resolution. “Passing this ordinance will show your 44 willingness to take the necessary steps to build racial equity for all constituents, pro- vide some privacy protection and help aid in services, including things like abortion and contraception. 4. Support Elimination of Electoral College Texas Republicans love the Electoral Col- lege so much that they proposed adding one that would specifically oversee statewide elections. Lone Star Democrats, meanwhile, want to ditch the national Electoral College altogether. 5. Create Election Holiday While Texas conservatives are calling for an end to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the state’s Democrats want to see Election Day in November recognized as both a federal and state holiday. ▼ CRIME unnecessary spending of city resources,” Anderson said. After the act passed, the Texas Freedom Network advocacy group congratulated re- productive rights advocates in Dallas. “De- spite our state’s vicious attacks on bodily autonomy, Dallas City Council has passed meaningful policy that honors and protects abortion seekers’ privacy and safety,” the group wrote on Twitter. Speaking to the Washington Post Live, Dallas County DA John Creuzot said he will work to protect women and “their decisions, their doctors’ decision [and] their health- care providers.” In neighboring Tarrant County, District Attorney Sharen Wilson has promised to prosecute abortion law violations. “Prosecu- tors do not make the law — we follow it,” Wilson wrote on Twitter in July. “We fol- lowed Roe v. Wade when it was the law and we will follow Texas state law now.” ▼ POLITICS OPPOSITE DAY T THE TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS OFFICIALLY ADOPTED ITS 2022 PARTY PLATFORM. BY SIMONE CARTER he Texas Republican Party made headlines earlier this summer after it unveiled an ultra-conservative plat- form at the state GOP convention. In addi- tion to weighing the supposed merits of secession, the proposed platform dubbed homosexuality an “abnormal lifestyle choice” and called for a repeal of all hate crimes laws. Now, Texas Democrats are airing their own party’s liberal wish list. And, to the sur- prise of absolutely no one, their platform is pretty much the polar opposite of the GOP’s. Over the weekend, the Texas Democratic Party announced that it had officially ad- opted its 2022 platform. Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement that the new document outlined the ways that his party would “fight for everyday working Texan families when [they] win in November.” Hinojosa argued that as the state’s GOP continues to “regress further down their A Dallas rally for abortion rights in June Mike Brooks dark rabbit hole of divisive culture wars,” Texas Democrats will continue to push for practical policies. “When Texans compare the Texas Demo- crats’ platform to the jaw-dropping secession- ist trash the Texas Republicans adopted earlier this summer, the differences between the two parties truly speak for themselves,” he added. The state’s Democratic Party is vowing to defeat conservatives in the November elec- tions, and they’ve fully embraced Beto O’Rourke, who’s running for governor. Some political observers say that O’Rourke has a shot at beating incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, with recent polls suggesting that the race has continued to narrow. Even still, cynics think that Texas’ liber- als have a long and treacherous uphill climb to make gains in the upcoming elections. Somehow, a small percentage of you still haven’t made up your mind about how you’ll vote in November. Here’s a little sample of what Democrats have rolled out in their 2022 party platform, versus what the Re- publicans have offered. 1. Legalize Cannabis While Texas Republicans still bristle at the idea of recreational weed, the state’s Dems are calling for the legalization of cannabis. 2. Expand the Supreme Court Republicans want to rein in the power of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Texas Demo- cratic Party is eyeing the opposite. The state Dems’ platform has proposed the “recalibration” of the nation’s highest court to “equalize the number of justices and federal circuits.” They also want to see more politicians in office who aren’t afraid to endorse such an expansion. 3. Protect Abortion Rights The state’s GOP won the battle to outlaw abortion, but Democrats say they’re still fighting to safeguard reproductive health care for all Texans. The liberals’ platform is calling for the restoration and preservation of reproductive MAR-A-MELTDOWN F TEXAS REPUBLICANS RESPONDED ANGRILY TO THE FBI SEARCH OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S HOME. BY SIMONE CARTER ormer President Donald Trump may live on the East Coast, but some of his most die-hard followers can be found right here in the Lone Star State. After news broke last Monday that the FBI had raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, many Texas GOP politicians took to social media to claim that the deep state had done The Donald dirty. The search was reportedly part of an in- vestigation into the way that Trump handled presidential documents at the end of his term. It’s alleged that he failed to overturn certain classified records, instead taking them back with him to Mar-a-Lago. Trump announced the search in a state- ment the same day. “Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries,” his state- ment read, in part. “Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe!” The Republican Party of Texas jumped to Trump’s defense in a tweet. “Biden has crossed the Rubicon. If there was any doubt remaining, we are now living in a post constitutional America where the Jus- tice Department has been weaponized against political threats to the regime, as it would in a banana republic,” the Republicans wrote. “It won’t stop with Trump. You are next.” Many of the state’s conservative politi- cians aren’t shy about their unwavering sup- port for Trump. Here’s how some of them responded to the raid. Gov. Greg Abbott Abbott blasted last Monday’s FBI search as “next-level Nixonian” in a tweet. The Re- publican added that no administration had ever targeted a former president in the way that the current administration has aimed for Trump. “This weaponizes power to squelch dis- sent,” Abbott continued. “Such abuses must have limits.” With speculation that the former presi- dent could potentially land behind >> p6 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 AUGUST 18–24, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
