The blocking of the abolition bill (HB896) in Texas in the spring of 2019 is covered in The Pro-life Movement is Keeping Abortion Legal, but I thought it was worthy of its own article. In particular, Rep. Jeff Leach who is ultimately responsible for killing HB896, has been pushing his “pro-life” status consistently on social media and is being propped up as a “pro-life champion” by Texas pro-life groups. The hypocrisy and audacity of such activity by a professing Christian pro-life legislator must be documented and exposed.
Overview of Events Around HB896
HB896 was publicly supported by hundreds of people who showed up to testify for it late into the night. Despite this support, GOP pro-life legislator Jeff Leach blocked the bill from even going forward to a vote.
Since ~55,000 babies are murdered every year in Texas and it will be 2 years before another abolition bill can be introduced, ~110,000 babies will be murdered in Texas because of pro-life legislator Jeff Leach. In the end, Jeff decided it was better for pre-born babies to be murdered in Texas than to have equal protection under the law against those who try to murder them. He considers that position a “commitment to advancing life”.
But note, he says that “trusted pro-life legislators and advocates agree” with him. Who all this includes we do not know for sure, but we do know that he was supported by Texas Alliance for Life and his Southern Baptist pastor Jack Graham (and former SBC President).
Other Texas pro-lifers like Abby Johnson, Brian Fisher of Human Coalition, and Texans for Life also publicly opposed the bill (documentation here). The lack of support from other GOP legislators and groups like Texas Right for Life is also worth highlighting. All of these people have blood on their heads.
Pro-life Posturing, Awards, and Rallies
Let’s look more closely as some of the unrighteous “alliances” in Texas. Texas Alliance for Life (TAL) is a pro-life lobby group who seems to work closely with Rep. Jeff Leach. Their stated opposition to HB896 was repeated by Leach when he blocked the bill from moving forward.
Very soon after killing HB896, Leach and TAL put forward a Born Alive Act (HB16) for Texas as a way to try and save face. Of course, it was already illegal to kill a born baby in TX and stats show that no babies have been born alive after an abortion in Texas since at least 2013, but Leach and TAL didn’t let that stop them. TAL even put out a whole article about their “pro-life champion” Jeff Leach. Unfortunately for them, the people of Texas and abolitionists aren’t so easily fooled.
But TAL and Jeff continued with their pro-life marketing. The man who should be ashamed to show his face in public for blocking abolition was given a “Courageous Defense of Life Award” by TAL in October 2019. And in January of 2020, Leach was the speaker at the Texas Rally for Life.
Leach also showed up to the 2020 March for Life, sharing videos and pictures with his pastor Jack Graham, who supported him “1000 percent” in killing the Texas abolition bill which would have ended baby murder there.
Please note, Jeff is up for re-election and is currently supported by the Texas GOP. With friends like Jeff, TAL, Abby Johnson, Jack Graham, the Texas GOP and other pro-lifers in Texas, who needs enemies? If we want to see abortion abolished in Texas and the rest of the country, we must continue to expose and dismantle this compromised movement.
As Christians hold Jeff accountable online for promoting how pro-life he is despite killing an abolition bill, he responds by calling them trolls. The man is shameless – let’s keep holding accountable. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter.
Texas Republican Support of Abolition
Watch Jeff Leach in action:
Supporting Articles:
https://theresurgent.com/2019/03/17/supreme-court-idolatry-at-texas-alliance-for-life/
https://abolishabortiontx.org/hb896-setting-the-record-straight/
https://abolishabortiontx.org/2019/05/09/how-did-hb-896-die/
Texas Alliance for Life’s goal is to completely protect unborn babies from abortion beginning at fertilization. However, at this time we did not recommend the Texas Legislature pass bills that have little chance of surviving a federal court challenge because they banned abortions on “non-viable” unborn children, which the Supreme Court currently does not permit.
If passed, these bills would seriously set back, not advance, protections for unborn children. They would save no babies’ lives because the federal courts would not permit them to go into effect. They would result in more bad precedent in the wake of Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). And they also would result in substantial attorneys’ fees the State of Texas would be required to pay to the plaintiffs, thus strengthening the abortion industry and the organizations that represent them in court, including the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights. None of those bills passed
HB 896 by Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) banned abortions throughout pregnancy including on non-viable babies, which the Supreme Court does not permit. It required the Texas Attorney General to ignore the Supreme Court, which is not possible. And it criminalized abortion for women on whom an abortion is performed, which Texas Alliance for Life will never support. Women were never prosecuted in Texas or in any other state prior to Roe v. Wade. Claims that Roe struck down the Texas abortion ban because women were not prosecuted, i.e., a lack of “equal protection,” are patently false. In Roe, the Supreme Court found a right to privacy in the 14th Amendment, and they extended it to include a right to abortion, entirely unrelated to equal protection.
https://www.texasallianceforlife.org/the-86th-texas-legislature-completes-a-successful-session/