Texas Right to Life hosts first ever Pro-Life Townhall via YouTube

On Tuesday night, Texas Right to Life held our first ever Pro-Life Online Townhall.  Pro-Life stalwarts of the Texas Legislature joined via Skype to discuss Texas’ response to undercover footage of Planned Parenthood’s horrific practices right here in Texas.  Texas Right to Life is playing a crucial role in educating the public and engaging elected officials to ensure that Planned Parenthood is held accountable for their inhumane actions against women and children.

Sylvia Johnson, CEO of the Houston Pregnancy Center (HPC) and the first guest of the evening, works with the women who escape the tentacles of Planned Parenthood.  Johnson shared how the services at HPC are more vital than ever so that women feel supported throughout their pregnancies and are not simply treated as a revenue stream.  “No one is going to die in our pregnancy center,” Johnson noted, juxtaposing Pro-Life efforts with the culture of death that pervades Planned Parenthood.  Sylvia was clear that HPC welcomes women before and after abortion, regardless of how a woman ends her pregnancy.

Next, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick joined Texas Right to Life to discuss the investigations that he’s authorized into the Planned Parenthood abortion mills in Texas.  “If we need laws to be written, then we will pass those laws in 2017,” he continued, noting Texas Right to Life’s crucial role in writing Pro-Life legislation and helping to secure Pro-Life support for those bills in the State Legislature.  “We will join with Texas Right to Life to protect innocent human Lives,” the Lieutenant Governor concluded.

Texas Right to Life was also joined by Pro-Life Senator Lois Kolkhorst of Senate District 18 in Brenham and Representative Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth), who both expressed shock at how women are being treated in abortion mills.  They are both determined to study legislative policies that will address myriad issues that came to light through the videos by the Center for Medical Progress.  

Representative Klick explained that she has read inspection reports from Texas abortion mills that reveal “they were not properly cleaning instruments, that they had rusted equipment, and that they did not have life support machinery that was working and functional in the event of an emergency.”  Representative Klick’s description of the gruesome inspection reports reminds us that scandal and substandard “medical” treatment is nothing new to the abortion industry in Texas. 

Next, Texas Right to Life’s Legislative Director John Seago outlined needed policies to respond to the scandalous practices, including outlawing tissue procurement and donation from aborted children.  “There’s no way that as a state we can pretend that donating the remains to scientific research will justify elective abortion,” he said. 

Seago then iterated Lt. Gov. Patrick’s overarching legal strategy by noting the importance of passing a Dismemberment Abortion Ban.  Dismemberment abortions, or Dilation & Evacuation abortions, are manipulated by Planned Parenthood abortionists to crush body parts with little monetary value while preserving others for tissue sales.  We must demand that the tiniest Texans no longer be ripped limb from limb in the womb by calling for the Dismemberment Abortion Ban in Texas.

Representative Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) also made time to call and shared the reaction of members of the Texas House.  He lamented that the leadership of the Texas House of Representatives has been silent since the videos were released.  He said that if House leadership would actually facilitate passage of Pro-Life bills, rather than stall the bills, then Planned Parenthood would not have room to break laws on a daily basis, noting that delivering whole live children during abortions is considered murder by law.

We were honored to host so many distinguished guests last night.  More than 26,300 participants viewed or listened to Texas Right to Life’s Pro-Life Townhall.  The technology was made possible by 512 New Media and marks a breakthrough for live interactive communication with our statewide membership.  Stay tuned to TexasRightToLife.com as we bring more updates about the developing investigations in Texas.