SAVE THE DATE for the Annual Texas Rally for Life! Saturday, January 28, 2006

Join thousands of Texans from across the state for the Texas Rally for Life at the State Capitol in Austin on Saturday, January 28, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The Rally commemorates the 33rd anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which has claimed the lives of more than 46 million unborn babies. Roe has hurt untold numbers of women, leaving them with emotional and physical scars.

Meet at 1:00 p.m. at Republic Square at 4th and Guadalupe streets in Austin for the march on Congress Avenue to the rally at the State Capitol at 2:00 p.m. Roe hurts women, leaving emotional and physical scars on untold numbers of women. Meet at 1:00 p.m. at Republic Square at 4th and Guadalupe Streets in Austin for the march up Congress Avenue to the rally at the State Capitol at 2 p.m. For more information visit www.texasallianceforlife.org or call Texas Alliance for Life at 512-477-1244. Many organizations and churches will be marching together holding a banner with their organization's name. Tell our elected officials and the media that Roe Hurts Women.

To make a donation to support the Texas Rally for Life or any of Texas Alliance for Life's life-saving efforts, click here.

U.S. Supreme Court Update -- Hearings on Alito Nomination and Planned Parenthood Challenges Parental Notification Law

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings beginning on January 9 at 11 a.m. (Central Time) to consider Judge Samuel Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court. President Bush nominated Judge Alito in October to replace pro-abortion Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Judge Alito has served as a judge on the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals since 1990. "We believe the President has nominated someone who will respect the intent of the framers of the Constitution and will not rewrite the Constitution from the bench," said Joe Pojman, Ph.D., executive director of Texas Alliance for Life.  Meanwhile Justice Sandra Day O'Connor remains on the Court until her replacement is confirmed.

Texas' new parental consent law could be in danger from a Planned Parenthood challenge to New Hampshire's parental notification law heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on November 30. Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, challenged the law claiming that the wording of its emergency exception is unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade. New Hampshire's exception allows abortions without notification of a parent in cases when the minor's life is in danger but not her "health." Abortions performed on minors without involving their parents when the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the girl are extremely rare, if indeed they occur at all. For example, during almost 20,000 abortions performed on minor girls under Texas' parental notification law (January 2000 through May 2005), abortion doctors performed no secret emergency abortions, according to the Texas Department of Health. Other states have similar results, according to a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Thomas More Society. Pro-life Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (shown at right receiving an award from Dr. Joe Pojman) filed a brief in defense of New Hampshire's law. The brief represents 18 states including Texas. Abbott makes the case that this and other abortion-related laws should not be struck down before they even goes into effect "based on a worst-case scenario that may never occur." The Court is not expected to decide the case, called Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, before the Spring.

The president of a pro-life group at The University of Texas at Austin participated in a campus debate on the abortion issue and "aced" the test of the ability to stand for life. Erin Mallard, the president of University Life Advocates, a major economics and government, successfully faced off against the president of UT's pro-abortion organization, Voices for Choice, in December. Erin won points by discussing the characteristics of the unborn child and methods of abortion and by displaying large photos of beautiful unborn children and diagrams of abortion methods. Her opponent seldom discussed abortion, mainly talking about access to contraception and sex education, refusing even to concede that the killing of a newborn infant is murder. When one person asked the pro-abortion student if killing an unborn child through abortion is murder, she answered, "It's a tragedy." When the same student asked if killing a child after birth is murder, she again responded, "It's a tragedy." One student in the audience was heard to say, "I'm pro-choice, but I'm going to have to re-think this one."