With a massacre currently unfolding in the state—more than 53,000 Texans were killed through abortions in 2020—nearly 2 million Republican voters clearly spoke this week what they want state lawmakers to do.
In Tuesday’s statewide primary election, GOP voters approved the following proposition:
“Texas should enact a State Constitutional Amendment to defend the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, from fertilization until natural death.”
83 percent of voters said “yes” to the question.
The pro-life proposition was one of 10 on the ballot, and are belief statements that help guide the party for the upcoming state legislative session.
The proposition also comes amid a contentious year in the nationwide fight to stop the killing of children in the womb.
Last year, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature enacted the “controversial” Heartbeat Act, which prohibits an individual in the state from killing a pre-born child once the baby’s heartbeat is detected (though the law still does not protect a baby in the first few weeks of his or her life).
Since the Act was approved and signed into law, it has sparked a wildfire of backlash, with pro-abortion businesses, media, and elected officials—including President Joe Biden and his administration—raging against the law and suing to halt it. (Though it currently still stands in effect today.)
Additionally, the Heartbeat Act is unique in its enforcement: It empowers citizens, not government officials, to sue abortion facilities and anyone who assists in executing a child with a detectable heartbeat.
However, Republican state lawmakers — particularly the Texas House of Representatives and Speaker Dade Phelan — rejected several other proposed laws to save babies, including a ban on discriminatory abortions (killing a child because of their race or gender), and an outright ban on exterminating children in the womb.
Indeed, abolition was one of the legislative priorities of the Republican Party of Texas, which specifically called upon the state Legislature last year to “abolish abortion by ensuring the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization.”
And despite Texas’ heartbeat law, which 13 other states have already similarly done, Arkansas arguably now leads the national fight to protect American babies. Their state Legislature recently approved a near-complete ban on killing pre-born children, similar to the abolition law Texas lawmakers rejected.
“Performing or attempting to perform an abortion is an unclassified felony with a fine not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) or imprisonment not to exceed ten (10) years, or both,” the Arkansas law reads.
“We must abolish abortion in this nation just as we abolished slavery in the 19th century,” said Arkansas Republican Sen. Jason Rapert, the bill’s sponsor. “All lives matter.”
In Tuesday’s Texas primary election, voters overwhelmingly voiced their desire to protect all children. Now, the attention again turns to state lawmakers.
