The latest Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP) report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), released January 2, 2025, confirms that Texas’s pro-life laws are achieving their intended goal: protecting both women’s and unborn babies’ lives.
During the first 26 months since the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Texas doctors have reported performing 132 medically necessary abortions to save women’s lives or health through August 2024 — an average of five per month — with elective abortions dropping to zero.
No doctor has been prosecuted, sued, or sanctioned for any of those abortions. No woman has lost her life for lack of an exception in the law.
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“These numbers reaffirm that Texas’s pro-life laws are working as intended — safeguarding the lives of both women and unborn children,” stated Amy O’Donnell, Communications Director for Texas Alliance for Life. “Texas doctors can and are providing medically necessary abortions in rare and tragic cases when the mother’s life or health is at risk, as allowed under state law. Claims suggesting otherwise are baseless and spread unjustified fear among pregnant women.”
Texas continues to provide robust resources to support women and families. The state has allocated $165 million to the Alternatives to Abortion program and $400 million to Women’s Health Services in its current budget. Medicaid, which covers more than half of all births in Texas, includes 12 months of postpartum care for mothers, thanks to recent legislative action. Texas Alliance for Life remains steadfast in defending these pro-life laws and advocating for policies that protect women and their unborn children while supporting families across the state.
Texas pro-life laws explicitly allow doctors to perform abortions when a mother’s life or health is at risk from the pregnancy, as is evident in the text of the law and explained by the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Medical Board:
Pn May 31, 2024, the Texas Supreme Court, in Texas v. Zurawski, determined that the exception in the Texas Human Life Protection Act is both constitutional and clear. Physicians may use “reasonable medical judgment” to determine whether a pregnancy requires a medically necessary abortion. In the unanimous decision, the Court wrote:
A physician who tells a patient, “Your life is threatened by a complication that has arisen during your pregnancy, and you may die, or there is a serious risk you will suffer substantial physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,” and in the same breath states “but the law won’t allow me to provide an abortion in these circumstances” is simply wrong in that legal assessment.
In June 2024, the Texas Medical Board, which licenses and regulates physicians, addressed the life-of-the-mother medical exception in rules to provide guidance for physicians. The rules explained that, under Texas law, the threat to the mother’s life or health does not have to be imminent, a point which Texas Alliance for Life advocated for in the rule-making process a stakeholder.
Texas law’s definition of abortion explicitly allows doctors to treat women for an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage (spontaneous abortion):
An act is not an abortion if the act is done with the intent to:
(A) save the life or preserve the health of an unborn child;
(B) remove a dead, unborn child whose death was caused by spontaneous abortion; or
(C) remove an ectopic pregnancy.
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