By: Jack Fink
Groups like Texas Alliance for Life though say they want to protect unborn children regardless of diagnosis and want to prevent any weakening of exceptions to the state’s abortion ban
By: Marin Wolf
“We are thrilled to see the Supreme Court of Texas allow legal protections from elective abortions for unborn babies to continue while acknowledging that doctors can perform abortions to save women’s lives,” O’Donnell said. “This is just what our Texas Legislature intended.”
By: ELEANOR KLIBANOFF
The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Cox did not qualify for an abortion, even as it clarified in that ruling that a medical emergency need not be imminent to justify performing the procedure. Several groups, including the anti-abortion Texas Alliance for Life, called on the board to add this language to the guidance, which Zaafran said they would consider.
By: Celine Castronuovo
The Texas Alliance for Life argued Friday the Texas law is necessary, claiming it is “saving unborn babies’ and pregnant women’s lives.”
“The law allows doctors to perform abortions to save pregnant women’s lives in rare and tragic cases when medically necessary,” said Amy O’Donnell, the organization’s communications director.
By: John C. Moritz
Amy O’Donnell, a policy analyst and communications director for the Texas Alliance for Life, acknowledged that abortion rights activists have skillfully used the Cox case to bring the national spotlight to their cause.
Kate Cox, who sued for the right to have an abortion after learning that her fetus had a condition that is nearly always fatal, left the state to get an abortion. The state Supreme Court ruled against her.
While saying “our hearts go out to the Cox family,” O’Donnell said abortion rights organizations are using “a lot of misinformation” about whether a baby can survive trisomy 18.
“It’s incredibly important that we educate Texans and people in general, not just on the issue around trisomy 18, and the fact that that’s not always fatal, and that every life is valuable and worthy of protection,” O’Donnell said. “But also that our laws clearly allow doctors to intervene to save a woman’s life or to save her from the risk of impairment, substantial impairment of a major bodily function such as fertility.”
By: Constitutional Nobody
“We are grateful that the Texas Supreme Court affirmed the protections in Texas law for the unborn baby in this case,” said Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s communications director. “Texas Alliance for Life strongly supports the law, as passed by the Texas Legislature, that protects unborn babies from abortion but also protects the lives and health of pregnant mothers through limited exceptions.”
The Supreme Court pointed out that Texas’ law allows abortions when a pregnancy endangers a mother’s life or risks substantial impairment of a major bodily function (such as fertility) in a doctor’s reasonable medical judgment, an objective standard.