AUSTIN, Texas — Abortion opponents gathered on the Texas Capitol grounds Saturday afternoon for the annual “Texas Rally for Life.”
Amy O’Donnell with the Texas Alliance for Life said that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) estimated the crowd to be around 4,000 people. The people who marched were excited to be there and came from all over the state.
The “Texas Rally for Life” started with a march to the Capitol at 1 p.m., followed by a rally on the south steps and a “pro-life expo.”
The event included several speakers, including Deirdre Cooper, whose son was diagnosed with Trisomy 18.
“Just because you’re given a difficult diagnosis doesn’t mean that abortion is the only answer,” Cooper said.
Texas has some of the strictest abortion restrictions in the nation. Cooper, who works as a Public Policy Analyst for Texas Alliance for Life, said she doesn’t want to see any expansion of the very narrow exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban.
“We don’t want our laws weakened to allow those children to be aborted,” Cooper said. “They deserve to be protected by law, and those mothers deserve to be supported.”
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who represents Texas, was slated to be the featured speaker with top billing at the rally, but couldn’t make it in person as the Senate has been working through the weekend to vote on President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. Cornyn sent an audio message that organizers played at the rally. In it, he praised the abortion laws that are on the books in Texas.
“I can say without a doubt that Texas is the most pro-life state in the entire nation,” Cornyn said. “We have set an undeniable example of how to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
In the early days of the 89th Legislative Session, there’s been a push among top Republican leaders to clarify when Texas doctors can perform abortions.
In a recent interview, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told KVUE’s sister station WFAA that the state’s near-total abortion ban needs to be tweaked.
Currently, doctors can only perform abortions if a woman’s life is in danger or she’s at risk of losing a major bodily function.
“I do think that we need to clarify any language so that doctors are not in fear of being penalized if they think the life of the mother is at risk,” Patrick said in an interview on “Inside Texas Politics.”
Patrick said he does not support legislation that would punish a woman seeking an abortion.
Patrick is the first statewide Republican official to come out in favor of clarifying the medical exception to the state’s abortion law. It is especially significant, given that Patrick presides over the Texas Senate and wields tremendous power over legislation.
Doctors who perform abortions can lose their medical licenses or face fines and prison time if they don’t comply with the law, leaving many doctors afraid to perform the procedure.
ProPublica has reported that at least three pregnant women in Texas have died as a result of not getting care.
Multiple women are suing the state, saying they were denied abortions even though their lives were at risk because the law is too vague.
On Tuesday morning, on what would’ve been the 52nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade United States Supreme Court Decision, abortion advocates called for clarity.
“It does not clarify in the law, what is, you know, organ failure? Is there a percentage?” Ryan Hamilton, whose wife sued the state after being denied an abortion, said. “What has to happen where you technically meet the close enough to death to deserve being saved?”
Austin abortion rights supporter Amanda Zurawski has spoken extensively about her experience trying to get an abortion. She said as difficult as it was for the couple to get pregnant, at 18 weeks, she had complications. Due to Texas abortion laws, her doctor had to wait until Amanda’s life was in danger to perform the procedure.
“I was waiting for either the baby’s heart to stop or for myself to get so sick that I deserved care. It took 3 days between when I was diagnosed and when I met the criteria, which was when I went into septic shock three days later,” Zurawski said. “I was stabilized long enough to deliver the baby, but then went into another septic shock and was transferred to the ICU and was in the hospital for about a week.”
Zurawski shared her story last summer in front of a national audience at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
While Zurawski said she is skeptical that state lawmakers will address the issue, she plans to push for change throughout the legislative session.
“It’s this circular logic and this finger-pointing that got us to where we are today and is going to keep us here until somebody stands up and says, ‘Enough is enough,'” Zurawski said.
Amy O’Donnell with the Texas Alliance for Life said they believe the law clearly states that doctors should intervene and save lives.
“One of the things that our organization is working towards this session is continued medical education to help physicians who, for whatever reason, are confused about the clarity of the language of our law understand that they can provide the standard of care using their reasonable medical judgment to provide medically necessary abortions when needed to protect a mother’s life or health,” O’Donnell said. “Nothing in our law says the threat to the mother’s life has to be imminent.”
While Texas law says the life-threatening condition of a woman doesn’t have to be imminent for a doctor to provide an abortion, there is no mention of the immediacy of the condition in the Texas Medical Board’s rule.
The Texas Alliance for Life said 132 medically necessary abortions have taken place since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there saying that our laws don’t protect women facing ectopic pregnancies or miscarriage, and that’s simply untrue,” O’Donnell said. “The definition of abortion in the statute makes it very clear that ectopic pregnancy treatment and miscarriage support are not considered abortion in any way, shape or form. When a doctor does need to perform a medically necessary abortion, Texas law allows that.”
O’Donnell called Zurawski’s story “tragic because she did not receive a standard of care allowable under Texas law,” but said the reason she did not “is not a problem with the law.”
Abortion opponents touted some of the actions taken in the last legislative session, like putting $165 million towards the alternatives to abortion program, which is now called Texas Families, as well as funding for Healthy Texas Women and extending care postpartum for 12 months.
State Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R-Lakeway) spoke about the importance of programs that help new mothers obtain diapers and other resources at crisis pregnancy centers.
Even with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and the strict abortion law on the books in Texas, Troxclair said she believes there is work to do.
“We are just getting started,” Troxclair said. “We are not just celebrating the progress we’ve made here in Texas to protect mothers and babies. We have set the stage for the Texas Legislature to continue taking bold, historic, needed action to defend life.”
Democratic state lawmakers, including Rep. Donna Howard from Austin, have filed bills to clarify the law. Her bill, House Bill 257, would give doctors more clarity and power to decide when to perform an abortion.
In a tweet responding to an article about Lt. Gov. Patrick’s comments about the clarity of the abortion law, State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) said, “plans and work are already underway to try to get it done this session.”
The Lt. Gov is 💯 right about this. Plans and work are already underway to try to get it done this #txlege session. https://t.co/YPay5RrVpE
— Jeff Leach (@leachfortexas) January 20, 2025
State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), who authored one of the state’s two abortion bans, told KVUE’s news partner the Austin American-Statesman that he agrees with Patrick’s comments on WFAA and that lawmakers are “working on language.”
While lawmakers say they are open to clarifying the medical exception and are ironing out the language, so far, no Republican in either the Texas House or Senate has authored or signed onto a bill to do so.
The Austin American-Statesman contributed to this report.