By: Ali Linan

Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, one of the largest pro-life organizations in the state, said the organization “strongly supports” where Texas currently stands in its abortion laws. He added that recent statistics from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Induced Termination of Pregnancy report found that abortions in the state have plummeted from thousands per month to zero elective abortions and a handful of abortions to protect the life of the mother.

“At no time in our work toward protecting life have we supported legislation in favor of prosecuting mothers,” Pojman said. “Women facing unplanned pregnancies need compassionate support and alternatives to abortion, not criminal prosecution.”

“It’s important now that we focus on maintaining our pro-life gains, expanding funding for the state’s alternatives-to-abortion program, and holding rogue DAs accountable who say they will not enforce Texas pro-life laws,” he added.

By: Michael Karlis

Although the petition filed by Texas Alliance for Life garnered support from state GOP members, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s highest court ultimately ruled that it doesn’t have the power to “stymie” an election. Further litigation would only be appropriate if the measure passes, the justices added.

“The power of initiative is reserved to the people, not granted to them,” Justice Jane N. Bland wrote in her opinion. “Courts must not lightly usurp that power. Our role is to facilitate elections, not to stymie them, and to review the consequences of those elections as the Legislature prescribes.”

By: Molly Smith

“This precedent invites municipalities to disregard well-established election laws regarding charter amendments, protections for unborn babies, and numerous other issues, an unintended but foreseeable consequence,” Texas Alliance for Life spokesperson Amy O’Donnell said in a written statement.

If approved, the Justice Charter, which will appear on the ballot as Proposition A, would amend the city charter to bar police from investigating or making arrests for abortion-related crimes and misdemeanor marijuana possession. It would also expand the city’s cite-and-release program, ban police from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and create a city justice director to oversee these policy changes.

City Attorney Andy Segovia, however, maintains that San Antonio could only enforce the justice director provision, calling the others “inconsistent” with state law.

By: Megan Stringer

What they’re saying: The Texas Supreme Court’s decision adhered “to our longstanding commitment to avoid undue interference with elections,” Justice Jane Bland wrote.

“Our team spent countless hours on research, we know we are well within our legal right,” organizers behind Proposition A wrote on Twitter after the ruling.
The other side: “We are tremendously disappointed in the Texas Supreme Court’s decision … despite obvious violations of state law,” said Amy O’Donnell, the communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, which sought the legal challenge, in a statement.

By: Adela Uchida

“Now we’re seeing those drugs trafficked illegally into our state. Right now, in Houston, we see a lawsuit by a husband against three women because they helped his wife obtain an abortion,” said Amy O’Donnell with Texas Alliance For Life. “We’re excited to see where that case goes, what we hear. The reality of it is they do harm women.”

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O’Donnell says studies in Finland show up to 40 percent of women who take abortion drugs have complications, but the National Institutes of Health says abortion pills have a two percent complication rate. First-trimester surgical abortions have a 1.3 percent complication rate.