Republicans eye tighter enforcement of Texas’ abortion ban as Legislature starts | The Dallas Morning News

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By: Allie Morris

The state’s most prominent anti-abortion groups — Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life — are firmly against rolling back any part of the abortion ban, their leaders told The Dallas Morning News. Instead, the groups are supporting a variety of proposals to tighten enforcement.

Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas, has filed legislation to prohibit state and local governments from providing any logistical support to assist women in getting an abortion, including child care, lodging or travel. Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, filed a bill to block businesses from receiving tax subsidies if they help employees in leaving the state to get abortions.

Neither bill has attracted co-sponsors.

Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, said he is working on legislation to get around district attorneys who will not prosecute violations of the abortion ban. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot is one of a handful who have said they will refrain from prosecuting anyone who seeks, provides or supports an elective abortion.

DOJ Tells U.S. Postal Service Abortion-By-Mail Pills Are OK to Deliver | Houston Press

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By: FAITH BUGENHAGEN

Because of Senate Bill 8, in response to the DOJ’s ruling, Texans can expect to see cases challenging the decision to take place in courts across the state.

According to Amy O’Donnell, public policy team member at Texas Alliance for Life, the opinion concentrates primarily on the services provided by the US Postal Service and their inability to be at fault for these deliveries but does not clear other organizations or individuals from providing these pills in state.

“The law remains in effect in Texas, meaning that anybody who sends those chemical abortion drugs to women in Texas, with the intent of them having an abortion using the medication, creates a criminal offense to stand trial and be held accountable in Texas,” O’Donnell said.

DOJ’s decision to allow USPS to continue delivering abortion medications doesn’t impact Texas much | FOX 7

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By: Meredith Aldis

“It’s really about protecting women,” Texas Alliance for Life Communications Director Amy O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell said banning mail-order abortion drugs in Texas ensures women are not put at risk.

“A woman cannot receive abortion inducing drugs without first seeing a physician who can ascertain how long her pregnancy is gestationally, whether a woman is RH negative, and if a woman has an ectopic pregnancy and receives those drugs in the mail, it can cost her life,” O’Donnell said.

The FDA states the use of Mifepristone in a regimen with Misoprostol is safe and effective for the medical termination of early pregnancy.

Several abortion bills pre-filed in Texas | Spectrum News 1

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By: CHARLOTTE SCOTT

As written, the bill would not require a pregnant person to file a police report or provide forensic evidence. Alvarado said it’s because many women don’t report abuse in the first place. But since no record would be required to obtain an abortion, anti-abortion advocates see this as a way to create a loophole so any woman could have the procedure.

“Women could claim rape or assault or incest where, in fact, that has not happened. And it creates a potential loophole in an exception that we don’t support that would allow women to lie to receive abortions. We would hope that no woman would do that, but it does leave that door open,” said Amy O’Donnell, the director of communications for Texas Alliance for Life.

Seth Chandler, a law professor at the University of Houston, said this is where the legal waters get murky.

“Without any proof that the sexual assault occurred, in the sense of not having to file a police report or have a criminal prosecution for the assault, again, I suspect that pro-life forces are going to object to that on grounds that basically all that has to happen is for the woman to allege that the sex was nonconsensual and therefore constitutes an assault,” Chandler said. “And so I think when people get down to the nuts and bolts of trying to define these exceptions, there’s going to be quite a battle.”

Texas Pro-Life Republicans Win Every Race After Democrats Promised to Beat Them for Banning Abortions | LifeNews.com

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By: Steven Ertelt

Texas Alliance for Life’s Executive Director, Joe Pojman also pointed out the huge pro-life victories in Texas.

“Texas remains a pro-life state. All statewide elected officials endorsed by our PAC prevailed by decisive margins, including Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton. This was despite the well-funded efforts of their opponents to frighten voters by misrepresenting the effects of pro-life laws that Texas has recently passed,” he told LifeNews.

“That is especially true of various mischaracterizations of the Human Life Protection Act, HB 1280, which began protecting unborn children from abortion beginning at conception shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Opponents falsely claimed the law prevents appropriate treatment of certain rare but serious complications from pregnancy that threaten the mothers’ lives, which we quickly refuted,” Pojman said. “Of special note are the results of the re-election campaigns of the House and Senate authors of HB 1280, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake) and Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney). We look forward to continuing to work with them and the many other pro-life legislators to protect innocent human life in Texas moving forward.”

“Thanks to largely successful election results in Congressional races, Texas will send to the U.S. House 26 pro-life members (out of 38) in 2023, up from 24 of 36 members,” Pojman noted.

When Does the Life of a Pregnant Texan Count Under the State’s New Abortion Ban? | Texas Monthly

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By: Peter Holley

Amy O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, another advocacy group that opposes abortion rights, pointed to the state’s existing health and safety code, in which ectopic pregnancies, pregnancies in which the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, and miscarriages are not considered abortions. In other scenarios in which a pregnant patient’s life or health are at risk, O’Donnell and other like-minded activists say doctors can perform what they call a “separation” of an unborn child from its mother—terminology echoed in a fact sheet produced by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a right-to-life organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for the idea that human life begins at conception. Like other anti-abortion advocates, O’Donnell argues that Roe’s reversal does not cause undue risk to pregnant women because the health conditions that would require abortion as a means of saving their lives or their long-term health are “very rare in modern science.” When those conditions do arise, she said, medical exceptions in the law adequately address those cases. “When a pregnant mother faces a life-threatening situation, an induced abortion that aims to kill the child is not the answer,” she said. “There are many ways to deal with this situation that do not seek to take the life of the child.”