In Texas, Life Goes On After Abortion | Washington Free Beacon

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By: Kevin Daley

Texas’s experience suggests that overturning Roe v. Wade will not prove to be a seismic political event, at least as far as election outcomes are concerned. The muted reaction to the Texas Heartbeat Act, the beginning of the end of abortion in Texas, only emboldened pro-life elements across the state.

“The sun rose as usual. Life went on. And there was not a tsunami of opposition to that law,” said Joe Pojman, Ph.D., an aerospace engineer who now leads the Texas Alliance for Life.

Pojman told the Washington Free Beacon that his group viewed the Heartbeat Act’s enactment as a “dress rehearsal” for the possibility that Roe would be overturned, which came to pass in June. The ensuing weeks gave them a chance to fine-tune talking points and assess reaction from coalition partners.
The following months were all the more encouraging, Pojman told the Free Beacon. The alliance endorsed dozens of candidates in Republican primaries across the state, he said, and he did not detect any reticence or hesitancy from Republican lawmakers, an assessment shared by other Texas Republicans the Free Beacon interviewed.

“People running for office all up and down the ballot cannot be pro-life enough in the Republican primary,”

Pojman told the Free Beacon. “Our PAC interviewed dozens of candidates for Congress, the state house, and statewide elected office. It’s amazing. Virtually everyone is more pro-life than Mother Teresa.”

Pregnant woman’s HOV ticket protest highlights legal challenges post-Roe | Good Morning America

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By: Katie Kindelan

Since 2003, Texas has included fetal personhood language in its penal code, which recognizes an unborn child as being an individual “at every stage of gestation.”

Amy O’Donnell, director of communications for Texas Alliance for Life — an organization that supports restrictions to abortion access and supported the law that added fetal personhood language to Texas’s penal code — said that under the code, if a pregnant woman is in a car accident and their unborn child is killed, the death could be prosecutable.

In Bottone’s case of contesting an HOV ticket due to a pregnancy, O’Donnell said that while she recognizes Bottone’s unborn baby as a person, she does not necessarily see it as a second passenger because of the “intent and purpose” of the HOV law in the state’s transportation code.

“Each code covers different areas of the law,” said O’Donnell. “Is it still an unborn baby in both situations, absolutely yes. We recognize that. But the purpose of an HOV lane is to carpool, vanpool or ride-share so does that unborn child currently fit within the realm of the law, not at this point in time in Texas.”

O’Donnell said this case in particular opens the door to what she described as a “slippery slope.”

“If we go down this road, if a passenger in an HOV lane that’s riding in its mother’s womb counts as a separate passenger, what does that mean for other passenger areas such as on plane,” said O’Donnell. “If that pregnant woman gets on a plane and we want to recognize that unborn baby in the womb as a second passenger, does she then have to buy a ticket?”

According to O’Donnell, the purpose of giving personhood to unborn babies in state laws is to “protect unborn babies from injury or homicide.”

“Life begins at conception and a body within a pregnant woman’s body is not that woman’s body,” she said. “It’s a unique being with separate DNA, unique fingerprints and, as such, it is very much a person beginning at conception and worthy of protection.”

Texas is one of around one dozen states in the U.S. that includes fetal personhood language in legislation restricting or banning abortion, according to Dana Sussman, deputy executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), a nonprofit organization that supports abortion rights.

What Texas women would say to the other side on abortion | Dallas Morning News

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By: BeLynn Hollers

Rhonda Kay Moreland
Board member of Texas Alliance for Life and chairman of the board of directors of BirthChoice Dallas Pregnancy Center

Q1: I think the very first thing that I want every woman to know is that I come from a place of love and non-judgment. And that I’m here to have a conversation and I’m trying to empower women, to understand what I’ve learned about what I understand is the truth of life. And I think that there’s no judgement to anybody who’s had an abortion. We all have a story, we all have a past, but our past doesn’t define us. And so I’m in the movement as much for the women as I am for the babies.

Q2: If I could do something with somebody who thinks opposite than me on the abortion issue, it would be connecting women towards resources for help. I think that is probably a great starting point, is just connecting women with assistance in all aspects of their life.

Abortions up to 6 weeks can temporarily resume in Texas, district judge rules | KXAN News

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By: Monica Madden

Hours after the judge issued the temporary restraining order, Paxton announced he is “immediately appealing” the decision, in a post on Twitter.

“Today a Harris County judge froze pre-Roe laws criminalizing abortion in TX. But w/ SCOTUS’s Dobbs decision, these laws are 100% in effect & constitutional. The judge’s decision is wrong. I’m immediately appealing. I’ll ensure we have all the legal tools to keep TX pro-life!” Paxton tweeted.

Joe Pojman, the executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, echoed the attorney general’s sentiments and said he was not concerned about the legal action from providers hoping to block the pre-Roe law from being enforced.

“We think that is just a bump in the road and not a dead end for the pre-Roe laws. I think they will go back into effect in a matter of weeks and unborn babies will be protected,” Pojman said.

He noted that regardless of what happens with this case, the trigger law will still eventually kick in, banning the majority of abortions in Texas, 30 days after the Supreme Court issues a judgment for the Dobbs v. Jackson case.

The next hearing on this case is set for July 12, when the court will consider more permanent action.

Abortions up to six weeks of pregnancy can temporarily resume in Texas, judge rules | Texas Tribune

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By: ARIANA PEREZ-CASTELLS, ELEANOR KLIBANOFF AND ERIN DOUGLAS

Paul Linton, an attorney for the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life, said he thought a higher court would soon vacate the temporary restraining order and that the pre-Roe abortion ban should stand.

“I don’t think it has any merit,” Linton said. “I don’t think there’s any plausible argument that the laws have been expressly repealed, and the repeal-by-implication argument, I think, is very weak.”

Texas abortion providers sue to block state’s pre-Roe ban | Spectrum News

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By: REENA DIAMANTE

It has not been used for nearly a half-century, but some abortion opponents believe it is fair game after Roe’s reversal.

“They have ceased doing abortions because of the threat of prosecution under that pre-Roe law,” Joe Pojman, executive director for Texas Alliance for Life, said. “I’m very grateful that for right now, it appears that unborn babies are not being aborted. Hopefully, those women are being told about the alternatives, the vast resources available to them if they choose to give birth to the child.”