My name is Joe Pojman, Executive Director of Texas Alliance for Life. We support SB 24, and we thank the author for bringing it.
I will speak to SECTION 4, which adds Chapter 54 to the Health and Safety Code.
We note that bill creates a statutory basis for the highly successful Alternatives to Abortion program. We strongly support that.
The time is right to do just that to preserve and enhance the strengths of the Alternatives to Abortion program for decades to come.
The Alternatives to Abortion program provides vast resources for women and families with unplanned and planned pregnancies so that a woman can successfully carry her unborn child to term, keep the baby, or place the baby for adoption.
Services continue for three years after the birth of the child. There is no other state that has a program like ours.
The author and committee might consider adding language to assume that a network contractor may not be an abortion provider or an affiliate of an abortion provider, a provision that exists in several other places in Texas statutes.
Thank you.
Texas Alliance for Life’s Executive Director, Dr. Joe Pojman, gave this testimony to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in support of Senate Bill 24 on March 15, 2023