By: Daniel Friend
“[T]housands of pro-life Texans, including Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director, Joe Pojman, Ph.D., will gather on the corner of 14th Street and San Jacinto to march to the south steps of the Capitol for the annual Texas Rally for Life,” according to a media advisory from Texas Alliance for Life.
By: Joseph Pronechen
The day after the March for Life in Washington, on Jan. 25, the Texas Rally for Life (TexasRallyforLife.org) in the state capital of Austin will begin with a prayer vigil near the city’s Planned Parenthood and include a Divine Mercy Chaplet and Masses at two parish churches.
Amy O’Donnell, director of communications for Texas Alliance for Life, said that 2019’s rally drew a police-estimated 10,000 supporters, and she hopes this year there will be between 10,000 and 15,000, highlighting additions such as a gospel choir being part of the rally. Claire Culwell will speak at this event, too.
By: Lauren Grobe
Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, said the march raises awareness for alternatives to abortion such as adoption.
“I think women need to know that there are alternatives to abortion, that they are the best alternatives for themselves and for their baby,” Pojman said.
Speakers at the event also drew attention to bills filed for the Texas legislative session that began on Jan. 8. Pojman said it was important to show representatives that voters support anti-abortion measures. In the 2017 session, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 8, which restricted second-trimester abortions and required the burial or cremation of fetal tissue. The law was struck down in September 2018 by U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra.
Pojman said the rally’s importance also extends to the young adults and children who were in attendance.
“We have to keep people educated,” Pojman said. “I think we’re going to see that the average age of this rally is very young, a huge number of people who are under 18.”
By: Morgan Smith
Texas lawmakers have made the state “a national leader in defending innocent life,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told the crowd at an Austin anti-abortion rally Saturday.
“Because of you there is now an entire generation of women who see a sonogram as their baby’s first picture,” said Abbott, referencing a state law passed in 2011. He spoke on the south steps of the Texas Capitol.
The Rally for Life was organized by a coalition of anti-abortion and religious groups, including Texas Alliance for Life and the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops. The march marked the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Attendees gathered for a fair downtown and then marched to the Capitol, where state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, and state Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, also addressed the crowd.
By: Lisa Dreher
Joe Pojman, executive director of anti-abortion nonprofit Texas Alliance for Life, said their movement has resurged despite landmark rulings. “We had a big setback handed to us by the Supreme Court,” Pojman said. “Those setbacks always have made our movement grow, and that’s what I’m expecting in 2017.”
By: Mariana Alfaro
Forty-four years after the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, a large crowd of anti-abortion demonstrators who would like to see it overturned gathered Saturday at the Texas Capitol.