Could having Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court affect abortion laws in Texas? | The Dallas Morning News

By: Brianna Stone

It would take five Supreme Court votes to overturn the ruling. Kavanaugh could be the fifth, though Texas Alliance for Life director Joe Pojman said he doesn’t believe Roe will be overturned.

“But there is a good chance, if other questions came before the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh could help us prevail on issues we have not in the past,” Pojman said.

In 2016, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that would require abortion clinics to meet surgical-center standards and require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

Senate Bill 8, the major abortion bill of last year’s legislative session, is still being challenged in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The law would require fetal remains from abortions and miscarriages to be cremated or buried and outlaw a common second-trimester procedure, dilation and evacuation, which abortion opponents refer to as as “dismemberment” abortion.

Pojman said he believes Kavanaugh could help uphold these laws if they come before the Supreme Court.

“We don’t expect Roe to be overturned anytime soon, but we hope that sometime in the future the precedent will change to protect unborn children,” Pojman said.

A Peek Into the New Lege’s Anti-Choice Plan | The Austin Chronicle

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By: Mary Tuma

But TAL’s second priority, says its founder and leader Joe Pojman, is to prohibit “wrongful birth” lawsuits against physicians who withhold information from patients about fetal anomalies, another bill that didn’t pass last session. “These suits send the wrong message by saying society thinks a child born with a disability has less value than a child who is healthy,” says Pojman.

The discord between the two groups stems from TRL’s ties to well-funded conservative group Empower Texans, and from the group’s aggressive penchant for anti-choice bills that are sure to face legal challenges (“Deep Divisions in Texas’ Powerful Anti-Choice Movement,” April 6). Unlike TRL, Alliance for Life adopts a “prudent” approach to bills; for instance, it cautions against adopting bans at less than 20 weeks and is pessimistic about the 5th Circuit upholding the 2017 D&E ban. “Those laws do very poorly in federal court; there’s precedent against the law that’s strongly against us,” says Pojman.

Texas Senate race sparks debate in pro-life community | Catholic News Agency

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By: Michelle Bauman La Rosa

However, Pojman countered that Texas already “provides a tremendous amount of help for pregnant women” and does much to offer alternatives to abortion.

The state has more than 200 pregnancy resource centers that offer free to help to women in need, he said, and some half of these centers receive state funding. In addition, the state’s social service network provides health care for more than half of the minors in Texas, and the majority of childbirths in Texas are funded by Medicaid.

Rather than advancing the pro-life movement, Pojman argued, “O’Rourke would be a disaster.”

“He has shown himself to be entirely hostile to protecting unborn children from abortion. He has voted to allow late abortions, he has voted to support tax funding for abortions. If he became a senator and had his way, he would eliminate the Hyde Amendment, which has been demonstrated to have saved some 2 million babies from abortion since it was first implemented in the ‘70s.”

Texas Alliance for Life has enthusiastically endorsed Ted Cruz for Senate. Pojman pointed to Cruz’s consistent record of voting for pro-life measures, including a ban on late-term abortions and an end to federal funding of Planned Parenthood.