By: Bridget Grumet
Still, Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the state’s highest court to overturn Mangrum’s ruling, arguing abortion restrictions should be decided by the Legislature (which, I should note, is 70% men), not the judiciary. He got a loud chorus of backup this week as 10 Texas senators and 80 Texas House members signed onto a brief drafted by an anti-abortion group, the Texas Alliance for Life Trust Fund.
By: Marin Wolf
Funding abortion alternatives
Joe Pojman, executive director of the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life, is unimpressed by the fundraising totals touted by abortion funds, both in and out of Texas, when compared to the amount spent on programs that advocate against abortion, he said.
By: Joel Mathis
‘A deep breath’
There are some skeptics of the new ordinances in the anti-abortion movement. World, a conservative Christian news site, reported that one doubter is Paul Linton, special counsel for Texas Alliance for Life. He said a travel ban “in large measure, is unconstitutional” because of the right to travel. Then again, it’s not clear whom pro-choice groups might sue in order to overturn the ordinances: Like the state’s abortion ban, the travel bans are designed to be enforced not by government officials but by private individuals suing in civil courts.
By: Steven Ertelt
However, the ballot measure failed by a huge margin Saturday with 72 percent of voters opposed, according to the Texas Tribune.
Amy O’Donnell, communications director at Texas Alliance for Life, celebrated the victory after her organization spent months working to defeat the proposal.
“We are tremendously pleased to see that San Antonio voters have defeated Prop A so decisively,” O’Donnell said. “Prop A would have been tragic for unborn children and victims of trafficking who would have been left without the protection from abortion they deserve by San Antonio police.”
By: Corey Olson
One year after Texas banned most abortions in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the state could bankrupt the largest abortion provider. Texas is suing Planned Parenthood for millions in Medicaid charges rung up after the organization was booted off of Medicaid. “Planned Parenthood was caught in an undercover operation a few years ago harvesting and selling body parts from babies that were aborted at their facilities,” says Dr. Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life. “They were eliminated from the state Medicaid program because they were engaged in fraud—selling the body parts.”
Planned Parenthood challenged their removal from Medicaid in court, but continued to bill the program while the case played out. Ultimately, the courts sided with Texas, but not before Planned Parenthood had charged some $17 million to the program. “They were fraudulently billing the state of Texas, milking them out of money for our tax dollars,” says Pojman. “The state of Texas deserves that back with penalties. This is according to federal law and state law.”
“Simply put, Planned Parenthood does not deserve that money, the state of Texas should get it back.”
In addition to the $17 million in actual Medicaid charges, Texas is seeking more than $1 billion in penalties, fines and punitive damages. A federal judge in North Texas heard arguments in the case last week. If the state wins the case, the future of Planned Parenthood in Texas is uncertain.
“We don’t know if the national office will try and keep Planned Parenthood alive, or whether the three affiliates in Texas will end up closing,” says Pojman. “At this point, we just don’t know.”
By: Elise Catrion Gregg
Amy O’Donnell, spokeswoman for the anti-abortion Texas Alliance for Life, said that clarification needs to come from the Texas Medical Board – not the Legislature.
“For any physicians who are perhaps … confused on our clear pro-life laws, I would just encourage them to also reach out and see if they can get that clarification,” she said.