Dr. Joe Pojman, Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director, shared this message before a crowd of thousands at the 2023 Texas Rally for Life.
We live in a remarkable State in an incredible moment in History.
On Friday, June 24, the United States Supreme Court handed down its much-anticipated opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade.
After nearly half a century, states can finally protect mothers and unborn babies from the tragedy of abortion. An unmitigated victory.
Now, each day, the sun rises in Beaumont, travels across our state, and sets in El Paso, and all abortion facilities have ceased performing abortions.
Texas is well prepared for this historic moment.
First, the state’s pre-Roe laws protecting unborn babies from abortion, first passed in 1854, immediately went back into effect. Abortion providers were shocked.
Two years ago, the Texas Legislature passed, and Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law, several substantial measures to protect unborn babies from abortion and support women with unplanned pregnancies.
The Texas Heartbeat Act led to a 45-50% drop in abortions.
The Legislature also passed, and Governor Abbott signed, HB 1280, the Human Life Protection Act, to completely protect unborn babies from abortion beginning at conception.
The law went into effect last August. You may have heard it called the “trigger law.”
Stopping Abortion Providers
The Human Life Protection Act is the last stake in the heart of the abortion industry in Texas, and that is what it is designed to do.
HB 1280 makes performing an abortion a first-degree felony offense for up to 99 years.
Second, the Texas attorney general can bring a fine of at least $100,000 for any violators.
Does anyone here doubt that pro-life Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would hesitate to defend unborn babies?
Third, the law requires the mandatory loss of the medical license of a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist who participates in an illegal abortion.
CVS, Walgreens, don’t even think about dispensing abortion-inducing drugs in Texas. It’s highly illegal, and you will be stopped.
Now, you will find this very interesting:
The New York-based abortion advocacy organization Guttmacher Institution issued a report decrying that all 23 licensed abortion facilities in Texas have stopped performing abortions —
- including the eight abortion facilities in Houston,
- the three in San Antonio,
- three in Dallas,
- two in Fort Worth,
- three in Austin
- the facilities in McKinney, McAllen, El Paso, and Waco,
- all 23.
After fifty years, legal abortions have ceased . . . indefinitely. The abortion industry, which has done so much to harm mothers and babies, is crushed.
Like all abortion laws in Texas, women on whom abortions are performed cannot be prosecuted or fined.
Also, our laws do not allow prosecution for the treatment of a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy or other procedures to save the mother’s life.
As Governor Abbott has said, the law is protecting unborn babies’ lives. And it is protecting mothers’ lives.
Reported elective abortions have completely ceased — from 2,500 per month to zero. But there have been a very small number of abortions to save the life of the mother, three in August, which mean the emergency exception is working.
And the law protects precious babies conceived in the tragedy of rape and incest or with a life-limiting condition. There is no reason to change our laws.
Vast Support for Women and Their Babies
Two years ago, the Legislature appropriated vast funds to assist low-income women, especially women with unplanned pregnancies.
The Legislature and our Governor appropriated $100 million toward the highly successful Alternatives to Abortion program. That program provides services for women facing unplanned pregnancies to assist them in carrying the baby to term, giving birth, and keeping or placing the baby for adoption at 200 sites.
Services continue for three years after the birth of the child.
Also, $2.4 billion for pregnant women with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level. Texas pays for more than half of all births in our state.
And hundreds of privately supported non-profit and church organizations provide programs for pregnant women and their unborn babies before and long after birth.
Are there any pro-lifers who only care about babies until birth? None. They don’t exist.
All of this makes me proud. Proud of Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan, our Legislature, and the pro-life movement.
Let’s continue to make Texas a state in which abortion is entirely unthinkable and where everyone – from conception to natural death – is protected and thrives.