By: Reyna Rodriguez
Executive Director of Texas Alliance for Life, Dr. Joe Pojman, also testified in favor of the legislation prior to its revisions, and cited data reported by the Department of Health and Human Services of the 151 abortions labeled under the “medically necessary” exception from the overturning of Roe through November 2024. Dr. Pojman stated, “No doctor has been prosecuted, sued, or sanctioned for any of those 151 abortions. No woman has lost her life for lack of an exception.”
By: Nancy Flanders
The Texas Alliance for Life responded to the Biden HHS letter in a press release, saying that the Biden administration “falsely suggests that Idaho and other state pro-life laws fail to protect women facing life-threatening emergencies during pregnancy.”
By: Bettina di Fiore
Rather, we should adopt the bold attitude of Amy O’Donnell, spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, who told USA Today: “We don’t apologize for the fact that we don’t support discrimination against children facing disabilities or fatal diagnoses in or out of the womb. And that’s the line that we just believe should not be crossed.”
By: Cassy Fiano-Chesser
The Texas Alliance for Life celebrated as well. “We are ecstatic that the Texas Supreme Court has allowed legal protections from elective abortions for unborn babies to continue while acknowledging that doctors can perform abortions to save women’s lives,” Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s Communications Director, said in an e-mailed press release. “The law can continue to save babies’ lives and, in rare and tragic cases, save women’s lives, just as the Legislature intended.”
By: Bridget Sielicki
The other two laws set to go into effect are designed to support students who may be pregnant or have children.
Senate Bill 412 enshrines federal protections for pregnant and parenting students, while Senate Bill 459 gives parenting college students priority class registration. The bills allow students to take the time off needed for pregnancy or childbirth without discrimination.
“What we like about these bills is that it sets the table for an understanding that students who are parents face different responsibilities,” said Amy O’Donnell of Texas Alliance for Life to the Texas Tribune in May. “They have different weights on them, they have different pressures on them. They have to navigate different things than a student who is not a parent and there needs to be accommodations for them. There needs to be resources.”
By: Bridget Sielicki
Opponents of the measure argued early on against its wide reach. Texas Alliance for Life, a pro-life group, petitioned the Texas Supreme Court in February to block the proposal on the basis that its six distinct and unrelated amendments violated state law. The Court refused to intervene, however, citing its resolve not to interfere in local elections.
Texas law currently protects nearly all preborn children from abortion. Though city officials acknowledged that they would be unable to go against state law should the proposal have passed, they hoped to deprioritize enforcement of abortion laws and send a symbolic message to the state.