The latest report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, released on August 1, 2024, highlights the continued impact of Texas’ abortion laws in protecting both unborn babies and pregnant women’s lives.

The report shows that for the first 21 months following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case — from July 2022 through March 2024 — reported elective abortions in Texas have consistently dropped from thousands per month to zero. Additionally, during this period, doctors reported performing 102 medically necessary abortions, with five reported in March, all in hospitals.

“Texas’ laws continue to save unborn babies from abortion while also protecting women’s lives in those rare and tragic cases where pregnancy endangers a pregnant woman’s life or health,” said Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s Communications Director. “The latest report reaffirms that contrary claims are completely baseless.”

The monthly average of reported abortions for medical necessity (to protect the life or health of the woman) after Dobbs is 4.9. That number is comparable to the monthly average before Dobbs (January 2022 through May 2022), which is 2.6.

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No doctor has been prosecuted by a district attorney, sanctioned by the Texas Medical Board, or sued by the Attorney General. No pregnant woman has lost her life because of the provisions of Texas’ abortion laws, even with more than 360,000 live births in Texas each year.

The Texas Supreme Court, in Zurawski v. Texas, recently determined that the Texas Human Life Protection Act, which protects unborn babies from abortion with an exception for abortions is both constitutional and clear. Physicians may use “reasonable medical judgment” to determine whether a pregnancy requires a medically necessary abortion. The Court emphasized that the law does not require a physician to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent danger before performing a life-saving abortion.

Shortly afterward, the Texas Medical Board, which regulates physicians, issued rules explaining the law, including the provision that the medical necessity exception does not require the woman’s death to be imminent before a doctor can perform an abortion.