By: By Evelyn Li&Kevin Hogan
By: Joe McClane
A Catholic Take welcomes Joe Pojman, Ph.D. of @TXAlliance4Life to discuss one year since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Then we’re joined by Jordan Pacheco of the Glad Trad Podcast to tackle divorce from a Catholic perspective.
By: Boram Kim
Texas’s Alternatives to Abortion (A2A) program will receive $140 million over the 2024-2025 biennium, a 40% percent increase from the current cycle.
Joe Pojman, PhD, executive director for the Texas Alliance for Life, told State of Reform the organization was pleased with the expanded support for the program, saying the passage of SB 24 will ensure its continuation now as the Thriving Texas Families (TTF) program.
“Now the [A2A] program is going to be [on a] statutory basis,” Pojman said. “The executive commissioner of HHSC will promulgate rules for a variety of things like outcome measures for how well the contractors are performing—according to what the department sees. It also more closely links [TTF] with other programs that the state has so it’s easier for those clients to access them. It’s more natural for the providers to link and refer the clients to [the Medicaid program].”
By: Kate McGee
“What we like about these bills is that it sets the table for an understanding that students who are parents face different responsibilities,” said Amy O’Donnell with Texas Alliance for Life. “They have different weights on them, they have different pressures on them. They have to navigate different things than a student who is not a parent and there needs to be accommodations for them. There needs to be resources.”
By: Ryan Chandler
On Monday, however, Texas Alliance for Life said there is no need to change the law to accomplish that.
“Our laws are very clear,” Amy O’Donnell with the Alliance for Life said. “We have heard stories of doctors who say they need further clarification. And we believe that that clarification should come in the same way that it comes for doctors regarding other legislative laws that have passed that affect their practice, and that’s through the various boards that provide that clarification for them, as well as for nurses and for pharmacists. The laws do not need to be changed.”
By: Ali Linan
Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, one of the largest pro-life organizations in the state, said the organization “strongly supports” where Texas currently stands in its abortion laws. He added that recent statistics from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Induced Termination of Pregnancy report found that abortions in the state have plummeted from thousands per month to zero elective abortions and a handful of abortions to protect the life of the mother.
“At no time in our work toward protecting life have we supported legislation in favor of prosecuting mothers,” Pojman said. “Women facing unplanned pregnancies need compassionate support and alternatives to abortion, not criminal prosecution.”
“It’s important now that we focus on maintaining our pro-life gains, expanding funding for the state’s alternatives-to-abortion program, and holding rogue DAs accountable who say they will not enforce Texas pro-life laws,” he added.