By: Meghan Friedmann
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “issued an order that said all non-essential health care providers had to stop provision of care,” Mariappuram said, adding that state Attorney General Ken Paxton announced soon after that abortion services were included in that category.
Requests for comment placed with the communications offices for Abbott and Paxton were not returned.
However, Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, defended the order.
“It was not targeted to abortion, and it was not a ban. It was a postponement for at most one month,” Pojman said. “We thought that the abortion providers needed to postpone those non-emergency procedures, just like everyone else.”
When the order was issued, according to Pojman, the state did not know how bad the pandemic would get and wanted to conserve personal protective equipment.
He also noted the courts upheld the restriction.