The Texas pro-abortion crowd received some very disappointing news on Wednesday.

According to the New York Times, Texas's abortion laws sent the number of abortions performed in the state spiraling downward from thousands and thousands to just over 30 and they are not happy about it:

Texas has publicly reported only 34 abortions so far this year, down from more than 50,000 in 2020, before the first of the severe restrictions went into effect.

That steep decline has occurred even though there have not yet been any prosecutions under the state bans, nor any significant lawsuits against doctors or hospitals. The mere threat of ruinous civil litigation or a lifetime in prison has been enough.

“Essentially, what we have is that no one will take responsibility,” said Molly Duane, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights who represented Ms. Cox and her doctor. “The court isn’t taking responsibility. The medical board isn’t taking responsibility. And in the meantime, doctors are more afraid than ever, and real patients’ lives hang in the balance.”

That last line from abortion lawyer Molly Duane about lives hanging in the balance is a bit of an exaggeration. Her client, Kate Cox, is currently being used as an example by the pro-abortion industry as to how cruel the Texas abortion laws supposedly are. 

As my colleague Jennifer O'Connell reported on Tuesday, Cox was forced to journey across state lines to get an abortion performed on her unborn baby after it was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a chromosomal disorder that has a low rate of survivability. Because Texas laws allow for abortions to occur if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother, and Trisomy 18 only threatens the baby, the Texas Supreme Court denied her the abortion. 

As O'Connell reported, while Trisomy 18 does have a high death rate, it is not guaranteed to be fatal, and more is being done to help these children thanks to the Santorum family: 

Trisonomy 18 (or Edwards Syndrome) is not always a fatal diagnosis. It's a troubling one that can result in pregnancy complications, birth defects, and a stillborn birth. But trying to paint it solely as destructive to the child and the mother is wrong. How do we know? Because families have chosen to ignore a diagnosis or a warning and have allowed their child to go to full term. Former Senator Rick Santorum and his wife Karen made this choice in 2008. While in utero, their daughter Isabella (Bella) was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, and the odds were laid out to them: Only 10 percent of babies diagnosed with Trisomy 18 survive past birth, and of those who do, only 10 percent live to see their first birthday. The surviving babies tend to have heart and lung defects and severe intellectual limitations. The Santorums are devout Catholics (they have eight children) and chose life despite the diagnosis. Bella just celebrated her 15th birthday, and the Santorums help other families who have received this diagnosis but choose life to manage this condition emotionally and, more importantly, medically. 

The first lie that the New York Times told in this story is that patients' lives hang in the balance, referring to the women in question. However, this is not the case as 34 abortions have been performed to save the lives of mothers, wiping out that argument. The second lie is that every diagnosis that would complicate a child's life is somehow automatically fatal, but this has also been proven to be an exaggeration meant to elicit emotions from listeners more than understanding. 

The pro-abortion crowd in Texas is telling on itself here. They're admitting that children without complications are the only ones who should get the privilege of life, and one has to wonder what kind of message that sends to adults who were once born with birth defects and complications themselves. 

Are these abortion activists willing to tell these people they wish they had been aborted to their faces?