By: Maria Mendez
Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups say state leaders, who are beginning to reopen the economy, had a legitimate interest in protecting public health.
“We’re really grateful to the governor for issuing these executive orders that have been intended to protect the public and the medical providers serving the public,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance For Life.
By: Catholic News Agency
In an April 24 video, Texas Alliance for Life director Joe Pojman praised the delay on elective surgeries as “decisive action” to delay the spread of the coronavirus and part of “a strategy that has worked.”
Pojman cited Texas’ relatively low COVID-19 rates compared to large states and its hospitals’ continued capacity to treat patients.
As of Friday afternoon, there were over 22,800 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Texas, including over 590 deaths. About 9,000 people are estimated to have recovered, statistics from the Texas Department of Health said.
“We believe Gov. Abbott’s actions have protected the public and especially health care workers from the coronavirus,” Pojman said. He stressed the importance of Fifth Circuit Court’s order to “delay all abortions, surgical and drug induced, except for the handful that would not be possible to delay.”
“Meanwhile many abortion providers appeared to violate that order and performed a number of abortions across Texas, when those should have been delayed,” Pojman added. “We are addressing that issue now.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday on the court’s ruling.
Texas Alliance for Life issued a written statement calling on abortion providers to follow the original order to free up doctors and supplies.
“The most recent order fails to recognize the danger abortion providers pose to the public by refusing to comply with Governor Abbott’s executive order in the same way other providers of non-immediately medically necessary surgeries and procedures have done,” said Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director Joe Pojman.
By: Sabrina Tavernise
Joe Pojman, who heads the Texas Alliance for Life, said in an email that “abortion providers should not get special treatment that puts health care providers fighting Covid-19 and their patients at unnecessary risk.”
Getting an abortion, not easy in many states under ordinary circumstances, has become even harder in recent weeks.
But the clinics, and much of the medical community, say that abortion is time-sensitive and that it could be months before emergency measures are lifted.
By: Kaley Johnson
Joe Pojman, the executive director of the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life, said that with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases projected to rise, healthcare providers’ highest priority must be treating patients who test positive and whose lives are at risk.
“That is a reality and these abortion providers need to get in tune with the reality of this crisis,” Pojman said. “Doing otherwise puts them totally out of the mainstream with what’s happening and puts patients at risk — patients who need life-saving procedures and need treatment for this virus.”
By: Maria Mendez
Abbott’s order also halted routine dermatological, ophthalmological and dental procedures, and Paxton has argued in court that abortion providers don’t have a right to special treatment.
“No one was being singled out for worse treatment or better treatment,” he told the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance For Life in a video interview on Friday. “It’s just that the abortion industry was the only group that wanted to be relieved of those restrictions.”