By: John Austin, CNHI LLC State Reporter

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops’ recent advisory urging dioceses not to participate with Texas Right to Life or allow it to use parish sites might puzzle observers who assume they share common goals.
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“Part of it is tactics; part of it is also end goals,” said Joe Pojman, Texas Alliance for Life executive director. “Texas Right to Life has allied itself with a non-pro-life organization — Empower Texans — which advocates its own brand of economic conservatism.”
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Pojman said his organization, which has taken issue with Empower Texans, has “nothing but praise” for Straus, despite not passing all its bills under his leadership.

“There are limits to what we can do,” in areas such as working to pass state laws that would end abortion in Texas, but be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, Pojman said. “We don’t have the votes on the Supreme Court.”

As for the Texas Right to Life primary endorsements, Pojman said many are based on economic conservatism.

“We have a scorecard,” as does Texas Right to Life, Pojman said. “We have people who scored 100 percent who did badly on theirs.”

By: John Austin

Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, acknowledged that the pro-life movement’s ultimate goal is to roll back Rowe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide.

“The question,” Pojman said, “is what’s the best way to do it.”

In Texas, a 2013 state law mandated heightened standards on clinics and imposed restrictions on where doctors could perform abortions.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 overturned the law, which shuttered about half of the state’s abortion facilities.

“We’ve made huge gains” in Texas, where 21 abortion centers now remain open, Pojman said. “But abortion does remain legal.”