By: Sophie Novack
“This is really about ensuring babies are treated in a humane manner — that their bodies are not desecrated, their organs are not harvested and sold,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, the anti-abortion group aligned with Republican House leadership.
By: Madlin Mekelburg, Austin bureau
The Texas House spent six hours Friday debating, amending and eventually passing a bill that would ban certain abortion procedures and require fetal tissue from abortions or miscarriages to be buried or cremated.
The bill started as a two-pronged proposal: It would regulate how fetal remains could be handled and prohibit “partial-birth” abortions. It also included a ban on the donation or sale of fetal tissue from an elective abortion.
By: Emma Von Zeipel
Joe Pojman, executive director for Texas Alliance for Life, said that “low-income women deserve better care than Planned Parenthood is willing or able to provide.”
By: Andrea Zelinski
Joe Pojman, executive director for the Texas Alliance for Life, which would typically agree ideologically with the caucus, saw four of his seven anti-abortion bills die at the hands of the Freedom Caucus.
He likened the legislative meltdown to a cross-country family road trip with three kids in the back seat. The caucus, he said, is the child who “will make everyone else miserable until they get their way … The unreasonable one will not be consoled.”
By: Marissa Evans
Joe Pojman, executive director for Texas Alliance for Life, said “low-income women deserve better care than Planned Parenthood is willing or able to provide.” He said he found more than 150 providers within 20 miles of Planned Parenthood’s South Austin Health Center by using the Healthy Texas Women Program’s online search tool.
“We don’t think agencies that promote abortion or are synonymous with abortion should be ambassadors for the state’s women’s health programs,” Pojman said. “That’s not consistent with the state’s mission to promote childbirth as an alternative to abortion.”
By: Chuck Lindell
But Joe Pojman, head of the Texas Alliance for Life, which also opposes abortion, said Tuesday that it’s too early to sound the alarm.
The House State Affairs Committee, he said, has already passed significant abortion reforms, including a ban on using fetal tissue from abortions for medical research, stricter reporting of abortion complications and a ban on any state funding for abortion providers.
In addition, abortion-related bills passed by the Senate have a later deadline for House votes, extending the time for action.
“It’s all very doable,” Pojman said. “I think we’re on task to have another sensational session.”