(LifeSiteNews) — Texas saw zero elective legal abortions in August 2022 and just three abortions for physical threats to a mother’s life, according to new statistics that highlights the impact of allowing states to set abortion after nearly 50 years of Roe v. Wade.
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe, the 1973 ruling forcing all 50 states to allow most abortions. That allowed new and old pro-life laws to take effect across the country, including a full, direct abortion ban dating to 1925 that was temporarily blocked after the ruling by a lower judge. Texas also has a heartbeat-based abortion ban that was allowed to take effect before Roe was overturned thanks to its unique enforcement mechanism (citizen lawsuits rather than government prosecution).
The heartbeat law was credited with significantly reducing abortions in the Lone Star State, and now Texas Right to Life highlights new data from the Texas Department of Health & Human Services revealing that the reactivation of the 1923 law has virtually eradicated the practice.
Just two months after Roe’s reversal, Texas reports, there were zero elective legal abortions and just three legal abortions committed to save the life of the mother. This was down from 67 elective abortions the month before, and 5,706 in August 2021.
Pro-life medical experts maintain that direct abortion is never medically necessary to save a mother’s life; it is unclear from the Texas HHS datasheet whether the three “medically necessary” abortions were actually abortions, or life-saving treatments that had the unintended, indirect result of losing the baby. Regardless, the fact that there were just three deals a severe blow to pro-abortion misinformation about the frequency of such situations and pro-life laws putting women’s lives at risk.
Further, while Texas RTL cautions that the report does not capture “illegal, unreported abortions driven by radical anti-Life groups” (particularly by various schemes to distribute abortion-inducing drugs from out of state), the overall numbers speak to the importance of pro-life laws.
“Thousands of lives are being saved, as many as 50,000 since September of last year, and the best days of our movement are yet to come!” the group says. “We must continue to fight against the abortion industry’s new efforts and create a culture that respects and values Life. Join us in the fight for Life!”
Across the country, Planned Parenthood has suspended abortions and/or closed locations in reaction to Roe’s fall, and pro-life attorneys general have declared their intentions to enforce their states’ duly enacted abortion prohibitions.
But leftists prosecutors in various localities have vowed not to enforce such laws, and pro-abortion activists have refocused efforts on the aforementioned pill distribution, supporting interstate travel for abortion, and enshrining “rights” to abortion in state constitutions, ensuring that work and debate will continue over the prospect of banning abortion nationally.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has called for electing more Democrats to Congress to support codifying a “right” to abortion on demand in federal law, which would not only restore but expand upon the Roe status quo, by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws.