A group of clergywomen and women representing various faith traditions held a press conference in the Texas Capitol on Monday, March 18, to express their support for “The Life of the Mother Act.”
According to Bee Morehead, executive director of Texas Impact, the bill clarifies “that Texas doctors can and should always exercise their reasonable medical judgment, even when that means ending a pregnancy that is going to kill or hurt the mom.”
Rev. Angela Raven-Anderson, who leads the social justice efforts at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, expressed full support for the bill. “As one who has had to walk alongside women in our congregation faced with these horrific decisions of how you select life [between] the mother and the child she is carrying, we know the stress it can bring to a family,” she said. In addition to her statement, Raven-Anderson carried over 700 letters from her congregation to the capitol regarding the issue of maternal mortality in pregnancy.
Rabbi Gail Swedroe of Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin said, “As someone whose religious tradition clearly states that the life of the mother takes precedence over the life of an unborn child, [the bill] restores freedom of religion for hundreds of thousands of Texans.” As a clergy member, Swedroe has “heard directly from those impacted by the current lack of clarity in our state’s laws, the physical and emotional pain along with the crisis of faith that accompanies it.”
The bill carries personal weight for Swedroe. She said: “As someone who was six weeks pregnant in March 2020, when the same forms of life-saving medicine being discussed today were considered ‘elective’ due to the COVID pandemic, I have personally experienced the fear that comes with not knowing if my doctor would be allowed to fully do their job, to do everything in their power to save my life, [and] to ensure that my two and a half year old would have a mother were my life endangered by this much-wanted pregnancy.”
Abortion has been almost completely banned in Texas since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. In August of that year, a trigger law went into effect, making abortion a felony, with penalties of over $100,000 and life in prison for doctors who perform the procedure. Similar laws have been passed in at least a dozen other states.
For Danielle Ayers, Pastor of Justice at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, the issue is of utmost importance for the health of the Black community. “For us,” speaking on behalf of her congregation, “pregnancy and motherhood are sacred.”
With this in full view, West and her congregation have “been more engaged in dealing with Black maternal mortality rates because Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy issues.” She added, “Our current abortion climate and laws place all women, and especially Black women, at risk.”
Representative Josey Garcia, D-San Antonio, spoke about the bill as the first female veteran elected to the state legislature. Garcia, who served for 20 years in the military health field, said doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath, a law that already governs how they care for their patients.
“As givers of life,” she said, “how much more ‘pro-life’ can you be than to support mothers?”
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