By Joe Pojman, Ph.D., Executive Director
State Representative Paul Workman, whose district includes most of West Travis County, is a pro-life champion with an outstanding voting record. He scored 100% on Texas Alliance for Life’s 2017 Legislative Scorecard, and Texas Alliance for Life PAC proudly endorses him for re-election.
We strongly urge voters to support Paul Workman so he can continue to increase protection of unborn babies and their mothers from abortion.
Unfortunately, Representative Workman is being unfairly attacked on the abortion issue by his opponent and by Texas Right to Life PAC, a Houston organization. They are claiming that Paul is not pro-life and that he supports allowing abortions on babies with disabilities such as Down syndrome.
That claim is false.
The reality is that Paul Workman helped pass the bill that protects unborn babies from abortion after 20 weeks, including babies with disabilities. That bill was HB 2 in 2013, and it is saving lives today.
Paul Workman Is Solidly Pro-Life
Since his time in the Texas Legislature beginning in 2011, Workman has voted for numerous landmark pro-life bills that are saving lives today.
In 2011, his first session, he helped pass HB 15, among the strongest sonogram/informed consent laws in the nation. He also voted for SB 7, which led to the defunding of Planned Parenthood by millions of dollars, and it banned the Travis County Hospital District from paying for elective abortions in Travis County. He voted for an amendment to the state’s budget to shift more millions of tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood.
In 2013 Representative Workman helped to pass HB 2 to ban abortions after 20-weeks after fertilization. The ban also protects all babies with disabilities from abortion, including babies with Down syndrome, spina bifida, and other conditions. HB 2 also vastly increased abortion facility safety standards, resulting in the closing of more than a dozen abortion facilities.
In 2015 he voted for all of the five pro-life bills passed that year:
- HB 3994 to protect minor girls from secret abortions without parental consent,
- HB 3074 to protect patients from euthanasia by starvation and dehydration,
- HB 177 to promote adult stem cell cures without destroying human embryos,
- HB 416 to protect victims of sex trafficking at abortion facilities, and
- HB 3374 to protect babies with Down syndrome from abortion.
Representative Workman voted in 2017 in favor of all 10 pro-life bills that were passed. It was truly a sensational session for pro-life advocates, and more importantly, for the babies and vulnerable patients. See our Pro-Life Accomplishments of the 85th Legislature for a full description. But to highlight a few:
- SB 8 shuts down Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby body parts by banning partial-birth abortion, banning all research on the tissues and organs from aborted babies, and requiring the humane disposition of the bodies of babies who die from abortion rather than allowing the bodies to be ground and flushed into a sewer system,
- HB 2552 further protects victims of sex trafficking by making it a crime to force a woman to have an abortion and creating a first degree felony (life sentence) for killing an “unborn child” of a minor girl who is a victim of sex trafficking (pimps frequently force their enslaved girls to have abortions),
- HB 214 eliminates mandatory coverage for elective abortion in health insurance plans in Texas.
- SB 1107 to ban telemedicine abortions,
- SB 1 doubled the budget for the state’s Alternatives to Abortion program that funds more than 100 pro-life pregnancy resource centers across the state, and
- SB 1 continues to DEFUND Planned Parenthood.
To say that Paul Workman is anything but pro-life is dishonest and false. His record speaks for itself — Rep. Workman earned a 100% on Texas Alliance for Life’s 2017 Legislative Scorecard.
Misrepresenting Paul Workman’s Pro-Life Record
Texas Right to Life, a Houston-based organization, claims that Paul Workman supports abortions on babies with disabilities. That claim is false. As said above, Workman voted for HB 2, which bans abortions after 20 weeks and completely protects babies with disabilities.
In May 2017, an amendment was offered to SB 8 on the House floor that would have removed a narrow exception to the 20-week ban that allows abortions on unborn babies with a “severe fetal abnormality.” The amendment did not pass. (The Texas Senate did not pass a similar measure even though they had ample opportunity to do so.)
Paul Workman supported the amendment. (He was first shown voting to “table” the amendment, but that was not his intent. He asked the House clerk to record his support in the House Journal, a very common process.)
Because Texas Right to Life and Jay Wiley are claiming (falsely) that Paul opposed the amendment, we will explain what the amendment would have done, if it had been adopted.
The amendment would likely not have saved a single baby from abortion. It could not have survived a challenge in federal court at this time.
An unborn baby with a “severe fetal abnormality” is not disabled. That baby has a fatal condition. The baby is not viable and cannot live outside the womb even with the best medical attention. For example, anencephaly is a lethal condition in which the baby lacks a brain and cranium above the base of the skull, leading to death before or shortly after birth. Another condition is renal agenesis, in which the baby has no kidneys and likely no lungs, again, leading to death before or shortly after birth.
Abortions for severe fetal abnormalities after 20 weeks are extremely rare, accounting for only 0.03% of the 55,287 abortions performed in Texas in 2015.
It is important to note current law (HB 2) does not allow abortions after 20 weeks on unborn babies with Down syndrome, spina bifida, cleft palate, and other non-fatal disabilities.
Paul Workman supports banning abortions on babies with disabilities and babies with fatal conditions.
Political Stunt
It is regrettable that Jay Wiley and Texas Right to Life are lying about Paul ‘s pro-life position.
And if that isn’t bad enough, does it not exploit the tragedy of those parents who grieve from the loss of a child with severe fetal abnormalities?
We strongly encourage voters to re-elect Paul Workman for State Representative.
Pol. ad. paid for the Texas Alliance for Life PAC