We live in a remarkable state in an incredible moment in history.
Because of the leadership of Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and Speaker Dade Phelan working in our Capitol building before you, our state is the best of all the states in protecting mothers and unborn babies. Our state provides vast resources for women with unplanned pregnancies. Last spring, the Legislature and our Governor appropriated $165 million for the highly successful Alternatives to Abortion program, a 65% increase. That program provides services at some 200 sites for women facing unplanned pregnancies to assist them in carrying the baby to term, giving birth, and keeping or placing the baby for adoption. And services continue for three years after the birth of the child.
Also, $2.3 billion for the Medicaid program to provide medical care for pregnant women — prenatal, birth, and postnatal care for 12 months for mother and baby for low-income women. Texas pays for more than half of all births in Texas.
Hundreds of privately supported non-profit and church organizations and ministries provide programs for pregnant women and their unborn babies before and long after birth.
Our state’s pro-life laws are saving babies’ lives, and they are saving mothers’ lives.
The laws now completely protect unborn babies from abortion, from conception to birth.
Since Roe was overturned, reported elective abortions have plummeted from thousands per month to zero. Zero reported elective abortions every month in Texas. The once-thriving abortion industry in Texas has collapsed. All 23 abortion facilities have closed or ceased performing abortions — from Beaumont to El Paso, from the Red River to the Rio Grande.
Our state’s pro-life laws are saving women’s lives. The exception in the law to allow abortions in rare and tragic cases when pregnancy endangers a mother’s life exists. Life-saving abortions have occurred in hospitals more than 50 times since Roe fell. That’s just a few each month, but that’s what we would expect with modern medicine. Our laws also allow treatment of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies. No doctor has been prosecuted or sanctioned by the Texas Medical Board. They are performing medicine and protecting women’s lives. The claim that Texas abortion laws have no exception is a complete lie. This is very clear to anyone who reads the law. We hope the Texas Medical Board will do its job and explain it to physicians.
And the law does protect precious babies conceived in the tragedy of rape and with life-limiting or fatal diagnoses.
Under attack
However, our life-saving laws are under attack like never before. The Biden/Harris Administration is doing everything possible to promote abortion in Texas. They want to turn hospital emergency rooms and every VA hospital into abortion facilities.
Right now, a New York-based pro-abortion organization has sued our state, seeking to make abortion legal and available for virtually any reason throughout pregnancy from conception to birth. If they get their way, abortion facilities will quickly return, and elective abortions will be happening. Tens of thousands of babies will be dying, as they were before, every year.
We must stop them.
Let’s remind our elected officials and the media that Texas is pro-life. Yes, Texas is pro-life. We are pro-life.
Do not ever grow weary; do not grow depressed. Our movement is winning, and thousands of babies are now born each year, good members of our community who would otherwise have perished – future teachers, doctors, lawyers, homemakers, and statesmen.
The Flag
This flag is from the very first March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 1974, a year after Roe, 50 years ago today. If it looks a little tattered, it’s because it’s 50 years old.
Let me ask those here. Who here was born less than 50 years ago? I think that’s most of you all. Let no one believe that the pro-life movement will ever go away.
For as long as any pregnant woman needs help, for as long as any unborn child needs protection, we will be here for them.