My husband and I have four kids, all now in their twenties. When they were young, money was tight, and vacations were often road trips to places where we had family or to my mother-in-law’s cabin in Colorado, where we could stay for free and just cover the costs of food and outings. Some of those road trips took us as far as Northern California, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia Beach, and Washington, DC. We have great memories of those times, but man, I lost count over the years of how many times we were asked from the back seat, are we there yet? Or some other variation of the same.
In the pro-life movement, many thought ahead to the overturning of Roe and pondered, “When will we get there?” When the Dobbs opinion was released, that monumental milestone came and went, and some wondered – with life protected from conception now in Texas, through the Human Life Protection Act, is our work done now? Is there anything else to do? All variations of the question, “Are we there yet?”
Now, four years post-Dobbs, over 1.1 million babies a year are lost to abortion in this country, with countless illegal abortions taking place in Texas. Lawsuits like Louisiana v. FDA are bouncing through the courts like ping pong – and just this week, we saw the effects of that with mail-order abortions paused at the Fifth Circuit Court of appeals and then temporarily reinstated quickly through a procedural administrative stay at the Supreme Court. Some of you in this room may be wondering, if Louisiana wins that case and the FDA is no longer allowed to distribute mifepristone without an in-person physician visit, which would not be legal in Texas, then are we there yet? Will life finally be fully protected?
The answer to that can be found by paying attention to how quickly abortion advocates pivoted to promoting Misoprostol-only abortions. This is because the lawsuit only addresses the FDA’s distribution protocol for Mifepristone. This is similar to other measures at the federal level, such as Senator Josh Hawley’s Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act, filed in Congress, to withdraw the FDA’s approval to distribute mifepristone for abortion and give women harmed by the drug the right to sue its manufacturers. U.S. Senator John Cornyn, whom TAL PAC has endorsed for re-election in the midterms, is supporting this critical legislation, staying true to his solid pro-life record.
Jessica Valenti, a vocal abortion proponent, came out quickly in the midst of the news from the Fifth Circuit, to offer a workaround option to women – a Misoprostol-only abortion.
For those unfamiliar with the two-pill regimen. Mifepristone cuts off the progesterone supply necessary to sustain the pregnancy, and Misoprostol causes the uterine contractions that expel the baby from the uterus. This abortion pill regimen has a four times higher complication rate than surgical abortion. Yet, we don’t know the number of complications, because the FDA removed reporting requirements several years ago for all complications except fatalities. They then used the supposedly low complication rates to justify approving the mailing of Mifepristone without an in-person physician visit, despite its black-box warning label.
I sent that clip to Dr. Skop, a prominent pro-life OB/GYN from San Antonio and the Vice President and Director of Medical Affairs for Charlotte Lozier Institute, and she reminded me that the complication rates go up considerably with a Misoprostol-only abortion. She said a 2023 study showed a 15% failure rate. One out of five or six women would end up in her Emergency Room and others like it across Texas and the nation to address complications, some potentially life-threatening. Additionally, misoprostol is known to produce birth defects, some associated with craniofacial and limb abnormalities—a tough road ahead for babies who survive but face lifelong complications from the drug.
This shows how far abortion advocates have gone as they have progressed from “safe, legal, and rare” to “illegally circumventing state laws if necessary, and we don’t care if it is safe for the mother as long as it takes the life of the unborn child.”
The federal Comstock Act, passed in 1873, prohibits the mailing or shipping of any article, drug, or substance designed, adapted, or intended to produce abortion. However, the federal government is not enforcing it at great peril to unborn babies’ lives and the lives, health, and future fertility of their mothers. We, along with other pro-life groups, are calling for the Federal Government to enforce this act.
Before Roe was overturned, roughly 55,000 unborn babies a year lost their lives to abortion in Texas. We no longer have reliable numbers of abortions happening illegally, because there are no reporting requirements for illegal abortions in our state. While we have some data on numbers shipped into Texas from abortion providing organizations, we can’t assume a 1-1 ratio of numbers sent to numbers taken. But we know the number of illegal abortions taking place, whatever it is, is too high and violates our state laws. We also know abortion drugs have become a tool of abusers who are forcing them on women in an effort to take the life of their child.
One of the cornerstone statements in the Dobbs decision was that the authority to regulate abortion was returned to the people and their elected representatives, where it resided before Roe made abortion the law of the land. Some erroneously state that Dobbs made regulating abortion a state issue. That is partly true; we do have a responsibility to protect women and babies at the state level.
But the other part of that reality is that protecting life is also a federal issue, as we have discussed today. If Dobbs made protecting life a state issue alone, then Texas babies’ lives would be fully protected from the moment of fertilization in our state, rather than being circumvented by the FDA and by doctors and organizations mailing chemical abortion drugs illegally through shield states.
Some abortion advocates are calling for codifying Roe at the federal level. Their goal with that – if they can’t circumvent state pro-life laws, they are fine with stripping away the right to make those laws at the state level altogether. We pray that day never comes.
And to add to the complexity, the activity we are seeing currently in the courts and Congress on this issue has no bearing on the international shipping of chemical abortion drugs into pro-life states, against their laws protecting life. That is also a federal issue that requires a strong pro-life administration to take action to stop it.
There’s a group claiming they have the silver bullet to end abortion once and for all: criminalize women. In Texas, that could mean life in prison — or the death penalty — for a woman who has an abortion. This is the same group that has stood in our Capitol, in lockstep with Planned Parenthood, to oppose the Human Life Protection Act, the Texas Heartbeat Act, and more. Not because those laws are flawed, but because any incremental protection falls short of their all-or-nothing demand — a standard that, to date, has saved exactly zero lives. We’ve watched the same approach roll back pro-life protections in Canada, and in other states here in the U.S. We cannot afford to ignore that warning. They proudly call themselves “anti-pro-life,” and they openly oppose our entire movement. They also oppose the safe haven that Pregnancy Centers offer women in crisis. Right now, PRCs tell us that abortion-minded women are walking through their doors, handing over the abortion pills, and choosing life. Right now, women who have already taken the first abortion pill are reaching out for reversal — and babies are being saved. Under this group’s approach, that stops. The frightened young woman with a pill in her hand doesn’t walk into a PRC — she’s too afraid of being prosecuted. The woman who regrets taking an abortion pill halfway through doesn’t pick up the phone — she’s too afraid of being charged. The woman seeking post-abortion healing stays silent and stays broken. Their policy doesn’t end abortion. It ends the lifelines and the progress we have made. They call it equal protection. Most people have no idea that in states like Texas, equal protection means a woman who has an abortion could face life in prison or the death penalty. They don’t lead with that. But when pressed, they have gone on record on videos posted online saying that if that is where the law leads, so be it.
Amid all of this, Texas has made extraordinary progress. As I share the scope of the war on life, I must add that Texas laws have completely stopped legal abortions in our state, with the exception of medical interventions allowed to save the life or health of a mother facing a complication arising from her pregnancy. Our laws, such as the Human Life Protection Act and HB7, which we supported the passage of last session, hold steep penalties for violators who illegally perform an abortion or distribute abortion inducing drugs. Our Texas Attorney General has several cases currently in our court system to hold violators of Texas pro-life laws accountable. That enforcement is critically important.
Planned Parenthood quietly released its latest Annual Report over Easter weekend. The headline: 434,450 lives ended through abortion and $832 million in taxpayer government funding received, while titling their report, “CARE CONTINUES.” Every taxpayer dollar going to Planned Parenthood is one too many. We cut off taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood in Texas, and we will continue to call for defunding Planned Parenthood of taxpayer dollars at the federal level.
So, to the question of are we there yet? We are not. So what do we do? We keep journeying forward. We continue to work to save as many lives as we can, celebrate every life saved, and do all we can to support women facing unplanned pregnancies to help them choose life.
We must hold our gains and continue to advocate, with compassion and courage, for the protection of life. To this end, Texas Alliance for Life has been working to shape a strong RPT pro-life platform; one that protects innocent human life from conception, calls for the enforcement of the Comstock Act against illegal chemical abortion drug trafficking, educates students on the unborn’s humanity beginning at fertilization, supports compassionate alternatives to abortion, and adds IVF reporting and embryo protections. We will continue this work at the state convention in Houston this June.
We are also gearing up for the 90th legislative session and fine-tuning our list of legislative priorities, which we will release in the coming months, so that we can build on protections for life in our state while opposing weakening exceptions and legislation that would set us back.
Before we get there, we must continue our efforts to endorse and see elected the best, most reasonable, and strongest pro-life candidates to hold our gains. And with all of this in mind, this election, like all major elections, is critically important. Life is always on the ballot. Reshaping hearts and minds on the sanctity of human life is critically important. The other side is relentless in the pursuit of their mission to advance so-called reproductive healthcare. We must be equal or greater in our resolve to speak up for the sanctity of life.
This is why elections matter. This is why your votes matter. The Primary Run-off Election is the next step in the midterm process. Voter turnout is a key factor in runoff races. Please get out and vote and encourage your peers to do the same. To see a list of the TAL PAC-endorsed candidates in the Primary Run Off election, visit ProLifeVoterGuide.org.
What I have shared with you just scratches the surface of our ongoing work to protect innocent human life from conception to natural death. It also paints just a glimpse of the true battle we are in for the hearts and minds of our state and nation and the lives of our most innocent, unborn babies, in their mothers’ wombs. We are grateful for every person who stands with us in this work. Lives are saved because of your prayers, your generosity, and your willingness to speak up for life.