A debate between Amy O’Donnell, director of communications at The Texas Alliance for life, Yuval David, filmmaker and activist, and Chaya Lev, activist and influencer, on the new leak to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the US.
By: ZACH DESPART AND JAMES BARRAGÁN
Joe Pojman, executive director of the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life, said he would also support an increase in funding for the Alternative to Abortions program, which the Legislature funded with $100 million this two-year budget cycle. The program pays a far-flung network of nonprofits — many of them ardently anti-abortion — for counseling, classes on prenatal nutrition and newborn care, and the provision of baby items.
But Pojman says lawmakers need to better promote the program so more pregnant people have access to it.
“For a lot of women who find themselves pregnant, they don’t even know that those exist,” he said.
By: Madlin Mekelburg
Joe Pojman, executive director of the anti-abortion organization Texas Alliance for Life, said he believes lawmakers who supported efforts to outlaw abortion in Texas “will be rewarded and not punished” at the polls in November, despite the findings in UT’s poll.
“Year after years, polls have results like that, and yet the pro-life movement in Texas continues to advance,” he said. “I don’t see a connection between these polls and what’s really happening in terms of elections.”
But abortion could prove a decisive issue in at least two May 24 primary runoff elections: a Republican statehouse race in Fort Worth and a Democratic congressional contest in South Texas.
Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, was forced into a runoff with David Lowe, a party activist backed by a far-right group looking to elect more conservative members.
Klick, a nurse and five-term House member, has carried many anti-abortion bills, including a bill passed last year to further restrict access to medication abortions.
Texas Alliance for Life and Texas Right to Life, the state’s two most prominent anti-abortion organizations, have endorsed Klick and expressed concerns over comments Lowe has made praising failed legislation that would have made ending a pregnancy a crime punishable by the death penalty.
The so-called trigger law that would outlaw abortion does not include any criminal penalties for people seeking abortion, only for doctors who might perform an illegal abortion.
“Do we all agree that abortion is murder?” Lowe asked a crowd during a campaign event earlier this year, according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “Absolutely. There should be consequences for it.”
Both organizations and Klick oppose any laws that prosecute people who seek abortions.
“We believe women considering abortion should be provided compassion and alternatives to abortion, not the threat of jail,” Pojman said.
By: Roxie Bustamante
Amy O’Donnell with Texas Alliance for Life said if Roe V. Wade is overturned, abortions will effectively become illegal in Texas but there will also be supportive programs to help women through their pregnancy and after birth.
“Texas is ready,” O’Donnell said. “Our legislature has appropriated $100 million towards the alternatives to abortion program that is for the biennium that money goes to pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies that support women up to birth and even up to three years after birth.”
By: ANDREW ZHANG, PATRICK SVITEK AND ABBY LIVINGSTON
Anti-abortion activists argue that Democrats are the ones out of touch on abortion. They acknowledge the polling on Roe v. Wade does not appear favorable to the GOP but said that’s because most people do not fully understand the landmark case’s impact and what its overturning could mean.
“The poll numbers have been similar to that year after year after year, and in Texas and other states, the pro-life movement keeps advancing,” both in policy and politics, said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life. He joked that every GOP candidate who his group interviewed for the March primary was “more pro-life than Mother Teresa.”
By: Matt Roy
“It makes us very hopeful,” executive director of Texas Alliance for Life Dr. Joe Pojman said.
But there is one thing the pro-life and pro-choice sides agree on: their bases are going to get out and vote this year.
“I think you’re gonna see a lot of people turn out this upcoming election that are angry about the position that the Supreme Court has taken, that is really against the safety and health of millions of women,” Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, president of local liberal voter group Nextgen America, said.
“We encourage Pro-life voters to get out to the polls in the midterm elections, early voting in October and Election Day in November,” Pojman added.