Activist Groups Paying People to Protest Texas’ 20-Week Abortion Ban

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 1, 2013   |   1:25PM   |   Austin, TX

Debate begins anew today in Texas as state legislators file legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion facilities accountable for following health and safety laws.

Abortion activists are out in force today to protest the bill and Katie Pavlich of Town Hall discovered they are getting money to do so.

Craigslist in Austin currently has an advertisement up for wanted full-time activists. The advertisement was posted on June 29, 2013, just two days before the second special Texas Legislature session started.
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I called the number listed on the advertisement to get more information and was told this campaign is directly working with Planned Parenthood to bolster their efforts.

That Planned Parenthood and abortion activists must pay for people to lobby the legislature is not surprising given a strong majority of Texans support the late-term abortion ban.

A poll shows that 46 percent of Texans think abortion should either be illegal or only legal in the cases of rape, incest, or when there is danger to the life of the mother. Only 36 percent thought abortion should be a matter of personal choice. The rest declined to respond or felt that abortion should be available only when need was clearly established. This is consistent with survey results from other red states.

More importantly, this poll shows that banning abortion after 20 weeks of gestation — one of the provisions of SB5 — has the support of over 62 percent of Texas residents.