By: Reena Diamante
“Our laws allow physicians to perform life saving abortions as necessary to save a woman’s life. There’s no conflict there,” Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, told Spectrum News.
By: ERIN DAVIS
“It’s unfortunate that some doctors have not given women the care that they need and that they deserve and is allowable in Texas law, but that’s not a problem with the law. That’s a problem with the doctors,” said Amy O’Donnell with Texas Alliance for Life.
By: REENA DIAMANTE
Some, but not all, opponents of abortion rights in Texas were disappointed Trump did not endorse federal restrictions. Trump said, “You must also win elections to restore our culture and in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly, a nation in decline.”
“We have not taken any position on a federal abortion law, and that’s in large part because it would not affect Texas,” said Amy O’Donnell, communications director of Texas Alliance for Life. “Our laws protect life now from conception on.”
The Texas law does not have exceptions for rape or incest, provisions which Trump supports. Texas Alliance for Life did praise Trump for appointing the three justices who helped to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that established the constitutional right to an abortion.
O’Donnell said she applauds Trump for “appointing Supreme Court justices who took a fresh look at Roe in light of the Constitution.”
The former president touted that in his new video, as well. Trump said he is “proudly the person responsible.”
By: ADOLFO MUNIZ
By: CHARLOTTE SCOTT
As written, the bill would not require a pregnant person to file a police report or provide forensic evidence. Alvarado said it’s because many women don’t report abuse in the first place. But since no record would be required to obtain an abortion, anti-abortion advocates see this as a way to create a loophole so any woman could have the procedure.
“Women could claim rape or assault or incest where, in fact, that has not happened. And it creates a potential loophole in an exception that we don’t support that would allow women to lie to receive abortions. We would hope that no woman would do that, but it does leave that door open,” said Amy O’Donnell, the director of communications for Texas Alliance for Life.
Seth Chandler, a law professor at the University of Houston, said this is where the legal waters get murky.
nti-abortion advocates don’t want to see a sexual assault exemption added to the abortion law.
“We believe that it’s wrong to discriminate against anyone based on how they came into being. And even with that beginning story, that child is still deserving of life, and so we will not support that,” O’Donnell said.
Even though most abortions are illegal in Texas, Hagstrom Miller stressed that there’s still a big need for it.
“Just because you ban abortion, it doesn’t change the need for abortion,” she said. “An abortion ban doesn’t prevent people from still needing abortions in the state of Texas. It just prevents people from getting that care from trained medical professionals. And I think that’s what we have to remember as we try to assist people in our communities that really need access to the safe, essential medical care that is abortion.”
Some Republicans have said there might need to be an exception to the abortion law for sexual assault, but it’s unlikely that abortion will become legal again next year.
By: CHARLOTTE SCOTT
As written, the bill would not require a pregnant person to file a police report or provide forensic evidence. Alvarado said it’s because many women don’t report abuse in the first place. But since no record would be required to obtain an abortion, anti-abortion advocates see this as a way to create a loophole so any woman could have the procedure.
“Women could claim rape or assault or incest where, in fact, that has not happened. And it creates a potential loophole in an exception that we don’t support that would allow women to lie to receive abortions. We would hope that no woman would do that, but it does leave that door open,” said Amy O’Donnell, the director of communications for Texas Alliance for Life.
Seth Chandler, a law professor at the University of Houston, said this is where the legal waters get murky.
“Without any proof that the sexual assault occurred, in the sense of not having to file a police report or have a criminal prosecution for the assault, again, I suspect that pro-life forces are going to object to that on grounds that basically all that has to happen is for the woman to allege that the sex was nonconsensual and therefore constitutes an assault,” Chandler said. “And so I think when people get down to the nuts and bolts of trying to define these exceptions, there’s going to be quite a battle.”