Texas Republicans named “Protect Life” as one of the party’s top issues they want lawmakers to focus on next year. During the Texas GOP convention in June, conservative voters also added strong new language to the party platform:
- Opposing abortion pills;
- Calling on the Trump administration to stop mail-order abortions;
- Condemning weaponized brain death declarations against hospital patients; and
- Supporting adoption.
Strengthening the GOP Platform doesn’t change the law. However, it serves as a roadmap outlining what the Republican Party of Texas believes, emphasizing the importance of Pro-Life values.
Naming “Protect Life” as one of the party’s top eight legislative priorities will help us pass more life-saving laws at the Capitol next year.
Here are some highlights from the Texas GOP convention:
1. Pro-Life is a Legislative Priority
Texas Republicans named “Protect Life” as one of the party’s top eight issues they want lawmakers to focus on next year.
This priority urges legislators to take decisive action to protect Texas babies from abortion, as online abortion pills run rampant.
It also reinforces the need to protect vulnerable patients when hospitals try to take away life-sustaining treatment against their will. The priority further calls for important safeguards against practices like IVF that destroy human embryos and surrogacy, which treats babies like objects to be bought and sold.
The legislative priority also urges Texas to pass criminal penalties for women who seek abortion, but Texas Right to Life is neutral on this issue. We focus our efforts on effective and prudent strategies so that we save lives and win the culture.
We call on lawmakers to affirm the sanctity of every human life, created in the image of God, by securing the right to life and equal protection under the law from the moment of fertilization until natural death. The Legislature must repeal Penal Code Sections 19.06, 22.12, and Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 71.003(c); pass strong criminal penalties and new enforcement tools to fight abortion and abortion pill trafficking; hold rogue officials accountable for failing to defend life; protect vulnerable patients from involuntary termination in medical settings; protect fetal life from destructive practices, such as IVF and commercial surrogacy; and promote Natural Procreative Technologies (NaPro) to help women conceive children naturally.
2. Resolution Calling for Trump to Stop Abortion Pills
Inaction from Washington, D.C., has allowed liberal doctors in other states to mail abortion pills to homes and dorm rooms all across the country. Since Joe Biden loosened FDA regulations in 2021, mail-order abortion pills skyrocketed, even with the fall of Roe v. Wade.
President Trump can crack down on mail-order abortion pills by enforcing an old federal law, the Comstock Act. Texas Right to Life presented a resolution urging President Trump and the Department of Justice to save babies by prosecuting activists who ship abortion drugs.
Enforce the Comstock Act: We call upon President Trump, Acting Attorney General Blanche, and the Department of Justice to immediately enforce the federal Comstock Act to stop mail-order abortions. The Biden administration enabled the distribution of these deadly drugs across state lines, undermining Pro-Life state laws and killing more than 200,000 American babies each year. These drugs not only kill innocent preborn children, but they also send one in ten women to the emergency room. The Comstock Act prohibits the mailing of abortion drugs but is not being enforced. We therefore urge President Trump and the Department of Justice to stop deadly mail-order abortions and protect both babies and mothers by enforcing the Comstock Act.
3. Supporting Adoption
Many pregnant moms feel afraid to choose adoption because they (mistakenly) think their babies will go into foster care. They worry that they’ll never see their children again if they choose adoption. That’s not true! But as a result of these misconceptions, abortions outnumber adoptions 50:1 in America.
Adoption is a critical part of the Pro-Life movement. That’s why Texas Right to Life introduced a separate plank in the platform supporting infant adoption (in addition to the language from 2024 that advocated for foster care adoptions.)
We acknowledge the ideal outcome is that birth parent[s] are able and willing to raise their own children, however when that is not possible, we fully support adoption. We call on the Texas Legislature to promote adoption as an alternative to abortion by passing legislation that will:
a) Encourage adoption as a compassionate alternative to abortion through public education distinguishing voluntary infant adoption from foster care adoption.
b) Promote policies that make adoption more affordable, streamlined, and accessible for qualified families while protecting the rights of birth parents.
c) Support initiatives that combat the misinformation and confusion about birth parents, adoptive families, and adoptees.
d) Ensure access to counseling and supportive services, including affordable mental health care, for birth parents, adoptive families, and adopted children.
4. More Protections for Patients
Hospitals in Texas can legally take away treatment against the family’s will by declaring a patient “brain dead.” Brain death diagnoses use controversial tests that can harm or even kill a patient. Families are often left without the ability to appeal or seek a second opinion. Texas Republicans called out this atrocity in the state GOP platform:
d) Protecting patients’ rights to opt out of the dangerous apnea test to declare brain death, receive an independent second opinion and to have their beliefs about brain death to be respected.
Lawmakers should not ignore preborn babies or vulnerable hospital patients with these issues outlined so strongly in the party platform and legislative priorities.
Next, we need to make sure that Republicans win in the November election, so that they can accomplish these goals!
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