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.”