Penalties, Protections for Abortive Mothers at Center of Pro-Life Platform Debate at Texas GOP Convention | The Texan

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By: Mary Elise O'Bar

Alliance for Life holds that women should not be punished for receiving abortions, and argues that if women who are forced abort their babies are placed in a position where they could face criminal penalties, they won’t be able to come forward to share their abuse, whether it be coercion by people in their lives or medical malpractice by abortionists.

“Texas Alliance for Life is in favor of putting abortion providers accountable, not punishing women for abortion,” Amy O’Donnell, Executive Director of Alliance for Life, said in an interview with The Texan on Thursday.

“We also have to remember that for almost 50 years, [Roe v. Wade] was the law of the land, and people were told that they had a constitutional right to abortion and abortion is healthcare, and we had to work incrementally to save lives,” she continued.

Abortion groups fight over whether Texas GOP’s legislative priorities list is too extreme | San Antonio Current

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By: Julianna Plewes

“The approach that they’re taking advocating for life in prison or the death penalty would set the pro-life movement backwards,” Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director Amy O’Donnell told the Current. At last month’s Republican State Convention in Houston, delegates voted to include a clause on protecting the unborn as one of the priorities for the upcoming legislative session. The Texas Alliance for Life argues the priority, as written urges legislators to repeal three statutes that protect women from prosecution for obtaining an abortion in instances of criminal homicide, indecent assault and liability in wrongful death lawsuits.

O’Donnell maintains the language is the work of hardline group the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. She said the organization flew people in from around the country to sway delegates to support the call for criminal penalties for women getting abortions.

“They spent tens of thousands of dollars on marketing materials, on propaganda, and we were there to educate on why their method is bad news, why it’s never passed, and why it’s not the way to protect women,” O’Donnell said. “The Abolishing Abortion group has saved zero lives, has passed zero laws, and their agenda is to do exactly what they did at the grassroots level, to bring people in from across the nation to try and push their view through.”