WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jeanne Mancini, the president of March for Life, said she hopes to see Texas pass legislation that clarifies the exceptions to its abortion law in instances when the life of the mother is in danger.
Texas’ abortion ban went into effect after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. It allows for exceptions when the expecting mother has a “life-threatening” condition or faces a “serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function” due to the pregnancy.
“I’d be interested in a specific law related to the exceptions,” Mancini told The Dallas Express at Friday’s 51st annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. “At the March for Life, we sometimes endorse laws with exceptions in them, but that’s because sometimes you have to go with an imperfect law to save lives.”
Doctors in Texas performed 32 abortions that qualified under the current exception criteria between January and September of last year, according to data from Texas Health and Human Services.
Two Texas attorneys petitioned the Texas Medical Board on January 16 to provide more context on how the exceptions should be applied, citing stories of women who claim they were denied necessary abortions, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The Texas Supreme Court denied an abortion petition last month from a woman who was about 20 weeks pregnant with a fetus diagnosed with Trisomy 18. The woman, Kate Cox, argued the pregnancy was unlikely to result in a child who would live and could put her health and ability to have more children at risk. She later got an abortion out of state.
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the pro-abortion group Center for Reproductive Rights, speaking with The Texas Tribune back in December. “Her health is on the line. … This is why judges and politicians should not be making healthcare decisions for pregnant people—they are not doctors.”
Trisomy 18 is a rare chromosomal disorder that leads to miscarriage or stillbirth in roughly 95% of pregnancies. About half of the babies born with the disorder die within a week, and an estimated 90% die within a year. However, some people who have the disorder make it into adulthood.
Mancini noted the importance of holding a consistent anti-abortion view in defense of the life of the mother and the life of the unborn at conception. “The fact of the matter is that any abortion does take a human life,” Mancini told The Dallas Express.
Rose Romero, a resident of Fort Worth who attended the March for Life on Friday, said the anti-abortion movement in Texas needs to focus on education to counter claims about the supposed consequences of the state’s abortion ban that she believes are misleading.
“It’s a matter of science and educating people,” Romera told The Dallas Express. “What does it mean when the mother’s life is in danger? What are we talking about? It’s very rare, as science shows, and statistics show.”
