A new report is proving that the Lone Star State’s pro-life laws are working, with elective abortions dropping to “zero.” According to the Texas Alliance for Life and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, there have been less than 70 elective abortions in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and absolutely none over the course of the past two years. The Texas Alliance for Life observed that “for the first 21 months following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade … reported elective abortions in Texas have consistently dropped from thousands per month to zero.”
In the months preceding the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, elective abortions in Texas exceeded 2,000 per month. January 2022 saw 2,531 elective abortions, February saw 2,513, March and April each saw over 3,000, and May and June each saw in excess of 2,500. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling at the end of June, elective abortions dropped off steeply — to only 67 in July of 2022. Beginning in August of 2022, as Texas’s “Human Life Protection Act” went into effect, absolutely zero elective abortions have been reported.
“We are so grateful to hear that no unborn children are killed by abortion in the state of Texas,” said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, in comments to The Washington Stand. She continued:
“This victory comes as the result of years of hard work by the pro-life movement to support moms and dads in need though pregnancy resource centers, sidewalk counseling, and prayer. It comes as the result of the work of people willing to stand up and recognize that every person — born and unborn — has inherent dignity, that of all the blessings God gives us, children are undoubtedly the greatest, and that every person deserves the right to life. Thank God for Texas.”
Szoch concluded, “But make no mistake, if the Harris-Walz administration is elected, they will do everything in their power to make sure that unborn children are once again under attack in Texas. These candidates want to do everything possible to attack unborn life.”
“What’s going on in pro-life states, like Texas, is enormously consequential,” FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter told TWS. “The pro-life movement has been talking about building a culture of life for years, and now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, we’re seeing the result of pro-life laws and the emergence of that culture of life.” He continued, “Candidates who hope to court the pro-life, pro-family vote should point to this and draw a contrast with states like New York, California, Illinois, Minnesota, and others, that legalized abortion through every stage of pregnancy, and even went so far as to remove crucial life-saving protections for infants that survive abortions.” Carpenter added, “When voters understand that contrast, they will want that culture of life.”
The “Human Life Protection Act” officially declares under Texas law that an “unborn child” is a human being “from fertilization until birth” and declares that a “person may not knowingly perform, induce, or attempt an abortion. The law makes attempted abortions a second-degree felony, but if an unborn child does die, it is elevated to a first-degree felony, carrying a potential penalty of life in prison under the Texas penal code. The “Human Life Protection Act” was temporarily blocked by a state court in 2023 as the result of a lawsuit, but was upheld and reinstated by the state’s Supreme Court in May of this year.
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
