Texans rejected a proposal to legalize aborting unborn babies on the ballot Saturday in San Antonio.
The proposed ordinance, Proposition A, came from pro-abortion groups and basically would have legalized the killing of unborn babies in abortions in San Antonio.
However, the ballot measure failed by a huge margin Saturday with 72 percent of voters opposed, according to the Texas Tribune.
Amy O’Donnell, communications director at Texas Alliance for Life, celebrated the victory after her organization spent months working to defeat the proposal.
“We are tremendously pleased to see that San Antonio voters have defeated Prop A so decisively,” O’Donnell said. “Prop A would have been tragic for unborn children and victims of trafficking who would have been left without the protection from abortion they deserve by San Antonio police.”
She said the ordinance would have required city police to ignore state laws that protect unborn babies’ lives and women’s health, fertility and safety from illegal and back alley abortions.
Texas law protects unborn babies by banning elective abortions and creates penalties for abortionists who violate the law.
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In February, however, abortion activists collected enough signatures to place Proposition A on the San Antonio ballot for the May 6 election. The proposed ordinance attempted to defy state pro-life laws by prohibiting police from investigating or making arrests for illegal abortions. It allowed exceptions if the abortion was forced or coerced, or if there was criminal negligence involving the health of the pregnant mother.
The ballot measure also included issues unrelated to abortion, such as the legalization of marijuana and a ban on arrests for theft less than $750 and vandalism with damages of less than $2,500.
San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas, and cities tend to lean far left politically. Despite these factors and claims by abortion activists that most Americans support abortion on demand, the ballot measure failed.
O’Donnell at Texas Alliance for Life said the defeat sends a strong message that Texans support life.
“Today, the will of San Antonio voters prevailed. And the will of voters across the state — who spoke through their state elected officials when Texas enacted protective laws like the Human Life Protection Act — has been affirmed,” she said.
In September 2021, Texas became the first state in almost 50 years that the courts allowed to enforce a pre-viability abortion ban. Then, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a historic ruling and began allowing states to protect unborn babies from abortion again. Now, all elective abortions are banned in Texas.
Data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission shows zero legal elective abortions and three medically necessary abortions legally performed to save the life of the mother in August 2022. In comparison, in August 2021, 5,706 unborn babies were aborted in Texas, according to state health data.
Pro-life leaders estimate that tens of thousands of babies have been saved from abortion since the Texas heartbeat law went into effect.
In November, Texans elected even more pro-life Republicans to their state legislature, contradicting predictions that the abortion ban would cause a blue wave in the southern state.
This spring, lawmakers also approved $225 million in funding to the state Alternatives to Abortion program to help pregnant and parenting families in need.
