Posted on 10/21/2023 11:17:33 AM PDT by Morgana
The Texas abortion ban is working and not only is the ban protecting babies from abortions it’s helping pregnant women find better alternatives.
As LifeNews previously reported, the Texas health department shows just 17 abortions so far in 2023 as the state’s pro-life law has saved tens of thousands of babies from abortions.
Texas Health and Human Services Commission recorded only 17 legal abortions in the first four months of 2023, according to a new report by the agency. All the abortions that took place were needed to save the life of the mother or because of medical emergencies.
In a new column, Jeff Bradford, President of Human Coalition, one of the largest pro-life and pro-woman organizations in the U.S., and John McNamara, the outgoing Executive Director of the Texas Pregnancy Care Network, a statewide network of pregnancy support centers, maternity residences, social service agencies, and adoption agencies, explain how the stats showing tens of thousands of babies saved are legitimate.
In the months that followed the implementation of the act, abortions in Texas fell, and more than 1,000 lives were saved each month. Then once the Supreme Court revoked Roe nine months later, recorded abortions dropped. Estimates vary, but the number of lives saved by the act could be around 10,000. It was arguably the most successful pro-life law to survive the legal effects of Roe.
But the good news doesn’t end there. Pregnant women are getting much better support and help now than before the abortion ban.
Follow LifeNews.com on Instagram for pro-life pictures and videos.
We knew that women would still seek abortion after it went into effect. Why? Women often feel pressured to abort because of economic and social difficulties, such as poverty, domestic abuse, or lack of support from friends and family. Of Human Coalition’s clients, 76 percent say they would prefer to parent if their circumstances were different. The Heartbeat Act would not erase these difficulties.
Knowing that Texas women seeking abortion in the wake of the Heartbeat Act would have a myriad of tangible needs, we worked with legislative leaders to scale up assistance. The legislature expanded Medicaid coverage to one year postpartum, and in 2021 funded the Alternatives to Abortion program at $100 million for two years — with another $25 million added to this year’s budget cycle and $140 million authorized for 2024-25. We have both been honored to contract with this 17-year-old program that helps provide women true, life-affirming alternatives to abortion and aims to improve maternal and child health.
By establishing both a law that protected precious lives and a strong material safety net for vulnerable women, Texas truly became a leader for how states should respond to the needs of women everywhere post-Dobbs. We are extraordinarily proud to have been part of this effort.
Some abortion advocates expressed shock at the numbers, but they clearly don’t undrestand that abortion is essentially never medically necessary.
One of the most common defenses of late-term abortion is the claim that in some cases, abortion is medically necessary. Lately, Americans have been hearing this claim in defense of a law in New York that allows abortions through all nine months of pregnancy. But that claim is based on faulty assumptions about the options available to women who face life-threatening pregnancy complications. The truth, known to thousands of OB-GYNs worldwide, is that there is no situation in which an abortion is medically necessary.
Over a thousand OB-GYNs and maternal healthcare experts joined together to affirm this reality in the Dublin Declaration, which states: “As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynecology, we affirm that direct abortion – the purposeful destruction of the unborn child — is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman. We uphold that there is a fundamental difference between abortion, and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child. We confirm that the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women.”
Nearly 10,000 babies have been born in Texas as a result of its heartbeat law, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggested earlier this summer.
The results of the study, published in the medical journal JAMA, add to growing evidence that pro-life laws are saving tens of thousands of lives. Researchers said Texas saw 9,799 more births between April and December 2022 after the law went into effect.
In September 2021, Texas became the first state since 1973 that the courts allowed to enforce a pre-viability abortion ban. So, for about 10 months prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the state enforced its heartbeat law, which bans elective abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy.
During that time period, the study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests at least 9,799 unborn babies were saved from abortion and later were born in 2022.
Researchers said they used monthly live birth data from all 50 states to come up with the number. According to Johns Hopkins, “The researchers calculated that there would have been 287,289 live births in Texas from April to December 2022 had the abortion ban not gone into effect in September 2021. The number of observed births during this period was 297,088, a difference of 9,799.”
In other words, the research suggests the Texas law saved about 1,225 babies from abortion every month. Six more months have passed since December, meaning approximately 7,350 more babies likely also have been spared from violent abortion deaths.
These are unique, valuable children who will have the opportunity to grow and thrive, experience joy, develop relationships and contribute to society.
However, researchers at Johns Hopkins portrayed their findings in a negative light, referring to pregnant women as “birthing people” and claiming pro-life laws cause harm.
“… abortion bans have real implications for birthing people, thousands of whom may have had no choice but to continue an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy to term,” said Suzanne Bell, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor at Bloomberg and another lead author of the study.
Bell said most women seeking abortions are struggling financially, so many of the mothers who gave birth in 2022 likely also are struggling.
But killing unborn babies in abortions is not a solution to poverty. Most pregnant mothers want better support, not abortions, and pro-life advocates have been working hard to increase resources to help families, including through government aid, tax credits, pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, scholarships, baby showers, fundraisers and more.
Last year, when the Washington Post highlighted the struggles of a young Texas mother and her baby girls after the heartbeat law prevented her from having an abortion, pro-life actress Patricia Heaton and other pro-life leaders highlighted a fundraiser for the family, raising $50,000 in 24 hours.
Today in Texas, unborn babies are protected from abortion at all stages of pregnancy. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, the state began enforcing a second pro-life law that bans all elective abortions. Now, 14 other states also are enforcing laws that ban or strictly limit elective abortions, and more are fighting in court to do the same.
While some women are traveling to other states for abortions and others are buying abortion drugs online, a number of studies indicate that pro-life laws are preventing abortions and saving lives. One report from the Society of Family Planning found that abortions dropped by about 24,000 nationwide from July 2022 to March 2023.
Michael J. New, an assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said the Texas birth data is “very powerful evidence” that state abortion bans are saving lives.
He conducted research earlier this year that came to very similar findings to those in the Johns Hopkins study.
“In my Charlotte Lozier Institute analysis, from November 2022, of Texas birth data, I found that the Heartbeat Act was preventing approximately 1,000 abortions from taking place in Texas every month,” New wrote earlier this week in a column published at LifeNews. “Also, new data from the CDC show that in 2022 the Texas birthrate increased by 4.7 percent — the largest percentage increase in the country.”
“All the abortions that took place were needed to save the life of the mother or because of medical emergencies.”
I don’t believe it. Not in this day of modern medicine and almost 100% survival rate. One of my daughters is a delivery nurse/C-section assistant and her major hospital unit has only lost two in three years of her doing this.
My great nephew is an alive today because of Texas abortion law. She went to the abortion clinic to kill my sister’s grandson and she got turned away. She decided not to drive out of state to get the abortion and decided to have the baby boy instead. Sadly my nephew wants nothing to do with my great nephew, but my sister and the mother get along great and we see my great nephew all the time. My sister gets him every other weekend and special occasions. I thank God for saving that baby boy. Pray for my nephew to change his heart for his son. He needs to grow up and become the father that his son deserves.
As of September 7 Texas has only had 17 abortions.
“All the abortions that took place were needed to save the life of the mother or because of medical emergencies.”
I’m going to figure that most were ectopic pregnancies. The others were other reasons.
I’m thinking they are paying extra for the doctor to “claim” they were for lifesaving reasons. As crooked as doctors are now days I would not doubt this one bit.
They are already arranging “lifesaving procedure” appointments in the emergency room so that insurance companies are forced to cover needed expensive “preventative” procedures.
If not, the insurance companies will wait until you are almost dead before they will cover any expensive procedures. My kids see it happen all the time.
And 9990 of the 10000 saved will be voting Democrat 18 years from now
Not really too many doctors are afraid to lose their medical license at this point. Some have been afraid to do a D%C after a miscarriage because of this.
If these women really wanted an abortion they could just travel to Colorado or other states where it’s legal. Many have.
bkmk
18 years from now what do you think will be left of the Democrat party?
I have now seen numerous threads concerning the huge drop in abortions in the states that outlawed or severely restricted it. My concern is that there may be an uptick in abortions in nearby states that are less restrictive. Has there been a study about that?
“Not really too many doctors are afraid to lose their medical license at this point.”
Please let me point out something you may not have noticed. All doctors now require you to sign off on a binding liability waiver before they will even take you on as a new patient or treat you at all.
Sign it... Or go away and find a different doctor. And they have you locked in with extortion, it might be 6-8 months to find a different doctor. And then that doctor is just going to make you sign the very same liability waiver.
The industry sucks and borderlines on criminal extortion practices.
Thank you for sharing.
God Bless you and your family.
Every time we save one American baby, that 10 babies we don’t need the Mexicans to have for us.
And liberals hate it.
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