US Senator John Cornyn declared Texas "the most pro-life state in the nation" at Saturday's annual Texas Rally for Life attended by thousands in Austin.
The Texas senator sent a recorded message but was one of many speakers who focused on commemorating the overturning of the 1973 US Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that imposed legal abortion "throughout all nine months of pregnancy," as Cornyn put it.
Central Texas state Representative Ellen Troxclair spoke in Cornyn's place; after the senator told rally organizers that he had to stay in Washington DC for Congressional votes that might be close (and indeed there was an extremely close late-night Friday vote in which Sen. Cornyn was needed to help confirm Pete Hegseth as US secretary of defense).
Rep. Troxclair lauded the work many private state organizations are doing to assist women who are pregnant or otherwise in need of help, saying they "are ensuring that no woman feels that she has to choose between her future and the life of her child."
It was with some emotion that Rep. Troxclair remembered the days when she considered abortion to be exclusively a personal choice, pinning her change of heart specifically on June 25th, 2013, when former Democrat Sen. Wendy Davis filibustered an abortion bill, "fighting for the ability to kill a child," as Ms. Troxclair put it on Saturday.
"I saw all the hate and violence, and it became so very clear to me on that day.
"This was not about 20 weeks versus 21 weeks, it wasn't about pink tennis shoes and headlines, it wasn't about social media clicks, this was about something much bigger -- it was about right and wrong, it was about life and death."
Also appearing before the crowd at the Texas Capitol was Corey Tabor, the regional director of church engagement in Texas for Carenet, a group to help pregnant women that is affiliated with the Rally for Life event.
His group, like others, exists to provide "material resources, pre-marital counseling, food and housing, mentoring, support like babysitting and respite care," he said.
"Because when you 've got young kids you need a free babysitter sometimes and you definitely need a break!
"I've got two," he said.