Beto O’Rourke and other Texas Democrats on the Nov. 8 midterm election ballot made the case Thursday that a change in leadership in Austin is the only way to reverse the near-total abortion ban after a new trigger law took effect.
At a press conference in Houston, Democratic nominee O’Rourke said defeating his opponent, incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, is the only way to restore abortion rights in Texas.
“An abortion ban with no exception for rape or incest is not us,” O’Rourke said. “It may be Greg Abbott, but it’s not Texas.”
The trigger law bans abortions except when a woman’s life or health is at risk. Though the law officially kicks in Thursday, abortion providers in Texas stopped offering the procedure after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade on June 24. The Texas Supreme Court ruled pre-Roe laws banning abortion could still be enforced.
The trigger law makes providing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to life in prison and a $100,000 fine. The law does not allow criminal charges against women who have an abortion.
Similar laws also go into effect Thursday in Tennessee and Idaho, as well as North Dakota on Friday. Abortion is completely banned in nine other states in the South and Midwest.
Gov. Abbott signed the trigger law in June 2021.
O’Rourke trails Abbott by 7 percentage points in the latest Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler poll. The poll found that most Texans favor exceptions to abortion for a woman’s life, and when a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Of the 1,384 Texans surveyed in the poll, 49% said they somewhat or strongly disapproved of overturning Roe vs. Wade, and 42% said they strongly or somewhat approved of overturning the precedent and returning the issue to the states.
The El Paso Democrat’s first campaign ads attack Abbott over the trigger law, saying it is too extreme.
Abbott’s camp hit back with an ad Thursday, claiming O’Rourke supports “born alive” abortion, a reference to some late-term procedures.
“Beto O’Rourke’s extreme views on abortion, which includes support for third trimester abortion, partial-birth abortion and even opposing life-saving care for babies who survive abortion, are not only out-of-touch with Texas, they’re out-of-touch with basic humanity,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eza said.
O’Rourke did not provide specifics when asked if he favors any restrictions on abortions.
“I trust women and their doctors to make their decisions about their bodies, about their health care and about their future,” O’Rourke said. “I think that is the best, smartest, most constitutional, American and Texan approach to this issue.
Democrats Mike Collier and Rochelle Garza, running for Lt. Governor and Attorney General, also released a joint ad pushing back against the near-total abortion ban.
In the ad, Garza touted her record winning reproductive rights cases as an ACLU lawyer.
“My daughter was three months old when Roe fell,” Garza said in the ad. “I’m in this fight for her. So that she can decide if, when, or how to start a family.”
The Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler poll found Garza is two points behind Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the closest of any statewide race.
At the press conference, O’Rourke was joined by abortion providers and Texans who were impacted by the abortion ban.
Elizabeth Weller, a Houston resident, spoke in support of O’Rourke at the conference. Weller developed a severe infection after a premature rupture of membranes in her pregnancy. Because her fetus still had a heartbeat, doctors in Texas did not allow her to terminate the pregnancy, for several days, while her infection worsened.
Weller said situations like hers are the future for many women in Texas and other sates with restrictive abortion laws.
“It doesn’t have to be the future that we are going to look forward to. We can make that change. Texans can make that change when we come out to the polls,” Weller said. “I implore you to vote with your consciences, do what’s right, and vote for a new governor to be in this position.”
