By: Claire Cain Miller
Abortion opponents say that fetuses, regardless of a fatal diagnosis, “deserve every chance at life,” said Amy O’Donnell, the communications director for Texas Alliance for Life.
“It is heart-wrenching for any parent to lose a child, and our sympathies go out to families who have experienced such loss,” she said. “Nevertheless, no disease, disability or disorder justifies abortion.”
By: J. David Goodman
Amy O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion group, said in a statement that the fact that dozens of abortions have been performed in the state this year showed that the medical exceptions to the bans, while limited, were working.
By: J. David Goodman
Amy O’Donnell, the communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, said that while it is “heartbreaking to hear of any family facing a tragic diagnosis for their unborn child” the group “does not support taking the life of an unborn child because of a life-limiting or fatal diagnosis.”
By: Michelle Goldberg
One of the new plaintiffs in the suit, a mother of four named Samantha Casiano, was forced to carry to term a fetus that she knew would not survive after birth, spending months fund-raising for the inevitable funeral. Reporting on Casiano’s case in April, NPR spoke to Amy O’Donnell of Texas Alliance for Life. O’Donnell was at least honest. She doesn’t believe in exemptions for cases like Casiano’s. “I do believe the Texas laws are working as designed,” she said.
By: Ruth Graham
Amy O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alliance for Life, said the state’s anti-abortion organizations had been preparing for years for the end of Roe. Her organization supported the state’s so-called “trigger law,” which would outlaw abortion almost immediately in the state if Roe v. Wade were overturned by the Supreme Court. The state legislature passed the bill in May 2021.
By: Natalie Kitroeff
Legal experts say such laws may be challenged after the F.D.A. decision, but for now, these state measures could discourage American doctors from sending pills to parts of the country with restrictive regulations.
“For the first time, Texas does have a way to protect women, through our criminal law, from people bringing dangerous abortion pills,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, an organization that helped craft the measure. “We’ll have to wait to see how well it is enforced in the coming months.”
Anti-abortion groups acknowledge that criminally punishing activists who distribute the pills, especially if they are from Mexico, may prove difficult. They would have to be caught and arrested in Texas, or extradited, experts say.