FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2013                                                            

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS BECKY VISOSKY
CELL PHONE  817-658-8701

EPIC LEGISLATIVE VICTORY AND PROMISED VIGILANCE

On Friday, July 12, the pro-life community welcomed an epic victory for life − the final passage of House Bill 2, historic legislation in Texas to protect women and their unborn children.  This critical legislation will not only increase the standard of health care for women, it is also estimated to decrease the number of abortions in Texas annually by 20,000.  Karen Garnett, Executive Director of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee and President of Pro-Life Dallas, was present in Austin during the consideration of the bill by both the House State Affairs Committee and by the full Senate body when the bill was finally passed just before midnight Friday. 

In her 20 years of pro-life service and advocacy, she has never experienced a more intense environment as thousands of peaceful, prayerful pro-life supporters mobilized from around the state to the Capitol were met with continual chanting, yelling and shrieking from thousands of abortion advocates opposing the bill inside the Capitol.  Ultimately, however, the democratic process won out and life prevailed.  

“We could not be more elated that our voices were heard and that Texas is once again taking the lead toward restoring legal protection for the unalienable right to life for the unborn, true to our nation’s founding principles,” said Garnett.  “We owe a special debt of gratitude to all of our pro-life legislators who put in so many long hours through an additional special session after the vote was first hijacked by ‘mob rule’ at the end of the first special session.”  

The new law will:

• Increase safety standards for 36 licensed abortion facilities to the the level of ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) (there are 420 ASCs in Texas, including six that perform abortions; all abortion facilities will now be required to hold that level of safety);
• Require the 18,000 RU-486 abortions performed each year in Texas to be done according to FDA safety standards;
• Require abortionists to be qualified to treat life-threatening complications after botched abortions by having privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility; and
  
• Ban abortions on unborn children beginning at five months of pregnancy (20 weeks), when scientific evidence clearly shows unborn babies can feel pain (the U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that allows abortions in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters; a majority of Texans, and Americans, are clearly polling that they favor banning abortions after 20 weeks).

Garnett went on to promise that the pro-life community will remain vigilant in the face of the anticipated court challenges, and “will fight to ensure this law is sustained and enforced in its entirety.”

Facts about abortion:  More than 10,000 abortions are performed in Dallas County every year.  Since the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, more than 53,000,000 abortions have been performed in America.