By: Marin Wolf
Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, said the nonprofit dedicated to protecting the “right to life” beginning at conception is acutely aware of groups that provide abortion pills to Texans.
“This is something that we proactively work to bring legislation for that would provide a deterrent for any who would wish to illegally traffic those mail-order drugs to Texas women from within our state or from another state,” O’Donnell said.
By: Noah Zucker
Brandy Bottone, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, ended up getting a $215 fine.
“My baby girl is right here,” said the mom who was on the way to pick up her son.
“She is a person.”
But the officer didn’t buy that explanation.
“Oh, no. It’s got to be two people outside of the body,” he said.
The incident happened shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“If a fetus is considered a life before birth, then why doesn’t that count as a second passenger?” the driver asked.
Amy O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for Texas Alliance for Life – an anti-abortion group, agreed with the officer.
By: Dan Solomon
When proponents of the state’s abortion bans talk about how Texas law already has narrow exceptions for patients at risk, they’re usually referring to the section of HB 1280 that notes the exceptions to the law. In a statement emailed to Texas Monthly on Sunday, Amy O’Donnell, communications director for the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life, expressed her disagreement with the ruling. “While Texas law is clear, we believe that some doctors are not apprised of the actual language of the law, resulting in poor care for their patients,” she wrote. Professional medical organizations such as the Texas Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), as well as the Texas Medical Board, should provide the guidance doctors rely on, she argued, rather than the courts. “Judicial activism from the bench using non-medically defined terms opens the door for greater confusion,” O’Donnell wrote.
“We applaud the swift action of the Texas Attorney General’s office to defend Texas law, which protects the lives of unborn babies while allowing abortions in rare cases when abortion is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life,” said Texas Alliance for Life Communications Director Amy O’Donnell. “While Texas law is clear, we believe that some doctors are not apprised of the actual language of the law, resulting in poor care for their patients. Professional organizations like the Texas Medical Association, ACOG, and the Texas Medical Board, are the proper sources of guidance and rules for physicians, not the courts. Judicial activism from the bench using non-medically defined terms opens the door for greater confusion.”
In August 2022, the Human Life Protection Act went into effect, protecting unborn babies from abortion beginning at conception. That law allows a physician to perform an abortion to save a mother’s life, when “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment, the pregnant female . . . has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.”
By: Allie Kelly
Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance For Life, said her organization has been following the Zurawski case closely. The Alliance supports a “life-threatening” exemption to state abortion laws, but believes the language in abortion bans is clear.
O’Donnell said many doctors and pregnant people misunderstand Texas law. She said the women in the Zurawski case received suboptimal medical care.
“We’ll continue to work to maintain our laws, to keep them strong, to not allow any weakening exceptions and to work against any legislation or judicial activism that would try to rewrite our laws in a way that does not protect life,” she said.
By: Ali Linan
Texas Alliance for Life, a pro-life organization, said the injunction “opens the door to confusion about the clearly-worded exception language to allow abortions when a pregnancy endangers a mother’s life.”
“While Texas law is clear, we believe that some doctors are not apprised of the actual language of the law, resulting in poor care for their patients,” Texas Alliance for Life Communications Director Amy O’Donnell said. “Professional organizations like the Texas Medical Association, ACOG, and the Texas Medical Board, are the proper sources of guidance and rules for physicians, not the courts.”