After SCOTUS abortion decision, advocates look toward next chapter | Statehouse

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By: Ali Linan

For Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, the decision could not come soon enough.

“We are ecstatic,” he said in a statement following the news.

With this win under their belt, Pojman said the anti-abortion movement will transition into a new phase – the “pro-life movement 2.0,” as he called it.

Rebecca Parma, senior legislative associate with Texas Right to Life, said the fight is not over in their view.

“This is not the end of the story; it’s really just the end of a chapter. And we’re moving into a new chapter in the pro-life movement,” she said.

Pojman said that although they anticipate plenty of lawsuits about the court decision, his organization will begin to concentrate greater effort “in providing compassionate alternatives to women with unplanned pregnancies.”

In that, Pojman said his group will continue to push for funding of the state’s Alternatives to Abortion program, to which state legislators have appropriated $100 million. The program provides counseling, material assistance and social services for up to three years after birth. The state budget accounts for helping about 150,000 women each year, Pojman said.

While the program is funded at the whims of the state Legislature, Pojman said he believes there is enough support for the program that he does not see it ending any time in the near future. He added that his organization will continue to monitor the results of the program.

“We have a goal of creating a society in Texas which truly is compassionate for women with unplanned pregnancies so that no woman seeks to have an abortion,” Pojman said. “We want women to have all the resources they need to successfully carry their babies to term, give birth to the babies, (then) keep the babies or place the babies for adoption and would feel 100% at peace with those options.”

Current law, including the state’s pre-Roe statutes and so-called “trigger law” passed last year, criminalizes the act of performing an abortion or aiding someone in receiving an abortion through threats of heavy fines, litigation and jail time. This includes providing abortion pills, or any other procedure or method used in the completion an abortion, but it stops short of criminalizing mothers. There is some differing interpretation about when each of these laws will take effect.

Both Pojman and Parma said their organizations are firmly against criminalizing mothers.

Texas’ Alternatives to Abortion program impact | KXAN News

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By: Jennifer Sanders

In the 2021 fiscal year, the following contracted providers were awarded money to administer the program:

Texas Pregnancy Care Network – $36,587,141.78
Human Coalition – $8,765,185.34
Austin LifeCare – $750,000
Longview Wellness Center – $54,000

“That was a 25% increase from the 86th Legislative session to the 87th Legislative session,” said Amy O’Donnell, director of communications for Texas Alliance for Life.

KXAN asked the Texas Alliance for Life, a statewide nonprofit organization, if funding for the organization would meet a possible increase in demand some providers said they are seeing. Even as the need grows, O’Donnell thinks the funding allocated over the next two years will help over 200 pregnancy care centers in the state.

“Those centers see 150,000 women a year. So that compares well, to the roughly 55,000 abortions that we’ve seen take place in Texas per year. They are well able to meet the needs through the centers,” O’Donnell said.

Houstonians on both sides of Supreme Court opinion rally after Roe v. Wade overturned | KHOU

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By: KHOU 11 Staff

Many hope things don’t stop here and the state makes sure laws are fully enforced. Many also hope that abortion alternative programs are expanded at hundreds of help centers across the state.

“We know that these pregnancy centers have compassionately trained staff and volunteers who are ready to stand with you, walk out pregnancy with you, support you as you have your baby and either choose to keep it – and in this case they’ll assist with your needs up to three years after birth – as well for the consideration of placement for adoption,” said Amy O’Donnell with Texas Alliance For Life.

The Texas Health and Human Services Department has an entire website dedicated to the Alternatives to Abortion Program, which features contact information for contracted service providers.

Some domestic violence victims see abortion as vital option that would be lost post-Roe | Texas Tribune

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By: ELEANOR KLIBANOFF

But now, the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for Texas to ban abortion in nearly all cases. Domestic violence victims are among the least likely to be able to travel out of state or safely self-manage a medication abortion at home, leaving them no choice but to carry a pregnancy to term.

For advocates and legislators who have spent decades working to ban abortion in Texas, domestic violence does not justify an exception to the rule.

“When a woman is a victim of sexual assault that results in pregnancy, from our point of view, we now have two victims,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life. “Violence is not a solution to violence, and we consider abortion very much a violent act.”

Pojman argues that abortion perpetuates violence by allowing abusers to cover up evidence of sexual assault and reproductive coercion.

Ahead of Supreme Court decision on abortion, Texas is already a ‘post-Roe world,’ advocates say | abc NEWS

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By: Katie Kindelan and Faith Bernstein

“The vast majority of the activity in the pro-life movement is really these hundreds of pro-life pregnancy centers and maternity homes who are designed to help women, and help them long after the baby is born,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, an Austin-based organization that opposes abortion, adding that he hopes Texas serves as an “example for the rest of the country.”

“For those women who seek abortion out of state in border states or beyond, it breaks my heart,” said Pojman. “It breaks all our hearts in the pro-life movement because Texas has such vast resources for women with unplanned pregnancies.”