AUSTIN, TX—The latest report of monthly abortions released by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission shows that Texas’ abortion laws continue to save unborn babies’ lives from abortion while also saving pregnant women’s lives.
The July 1 report for reported abortions shows a consistent trend. For the first 20 months after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson, from July 2022 to February 2024, reported elective abortions plummeted from thousands each month to zero.
At the same time, doctors reported performing 97 medically necessary abortions, all in hospitals.
“Texas’ laws are saving unborn babies from abortion and protecting women’s lives in rare and tragic cases when pregnancy endangers their lives or health,” said Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s Communications Director. “The latest reports show claims by critics and naysayers to the contrary are completely baseless.”
The monthly average of reported abortions for medical necessity, defined as abortions to protect the life or health of the woman, after Dobbs is 4.8. That number is comparable to the monthly average before Dobbs, from January 2022 to May 2022, which is 2.6.
No doctor has been prosecuted by a district attorney, sanctioned by the Texas Medical Board or sued by the Attorney General. No pregnant woman has lost her life because of the provisions of Texas’ abortion laws, even with more than 360,000 live births in Texas each year.
The Texas Supreme Court, in Texas v. Zurawski, recently determined that the Texas Human Life Protection Act, which protects unborn babies from abortion with an exception for abortions when “a woman has a life-threatening physical condition that places her at risk of death or serious physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,” is both constitutional and clear.
Physicians may use “reasonable medical judgment” to determine whether a pregnancy requires a medically necessary abortion. The Court emphasized that the law does not require a physician to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent danger before performing a life-saving abortion.
Shortly afterward, the Texas Medical Board, which regulates physicians, issued rules explaining the law, including the provision that the medical necessity exception does not require the woman’s death to be imminent before a doctor can perform an abortion.
