This is the question KKHT’s Terry Lowry asks TAL Executive Director Joe Pojman on the current (Sept. 26) episode of his show The What’s Up Radio Program. Listen to Pojman’s response…
The What’s Up Radio Program airs weekday afternoons, 2-3:30, on 100.7 FM (Houston).
Wrapping up the Tour: Ned and Terrie Perez, Joe Pojman, Louis Holstrom, Mary Ann Kelly, Mary Crabtree, and Jill Amerling.
The Choose Life Texas Tour came to an earlier end than planned due to the devastation caused in the Houston-Galveston area by Hurricane Ike. Last night’s reception at Silverado Smokehouse in Corpus Christi wrapped up the Tour.
While the events planned for Santa Fe and Beaumont have been canceled, a brief presentation on the Choose Life license plate initiative will be given at the Vision America Gala, which has been rescheduled for Thursday, October 9.
Stay tuned for ongoing news about the Choose Life license plate as we continue to work to make it a reality in Texas!
Wednesday evening saw the Choose Life Texas Tour at Two Peppers Italian & Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio for a leaders meeting and reception. The event was co-sponsored by San Antonio Coalition for Life.
Several media outlets have picked up the Choose Life Texas Tour story, including The Christian Post and OneNewsNow.
Rusty Pugh with OneNewsNow interviewed TAL Executive Director Joe Pojman on the Thursday before the Tour launched:
“We’re going on the road and visiting 11 cities with 13 or 14 different meetings with local pro-life leaders, pastors, elected officials, and we’re promoting the idea of a ‘Choose Life’ license plate – and this is all about adoption; this is a way to promote adoption,” Pojman explains.
“And our goal is to increase the number of adoptions in Texas because we think adoption can be a wonderful option for many women who are experiencing [a] crisis pregnancy, for those little babies, and for the adoptive parents. It really can be a win-win-win situation.”
And our thanks to Julie Stobbe in Houston for her mention of the Choose Life Texas Tour on the Act of Life blog!
The last five days have been a whirlwind of faces and names…a special thank you to all the organizations and individuals who helped make the first half of the week a success!
At the half-way point on our Choose Life Texas Tour, our stack of petitions is dwindling…thanks to everyone who has taken copies to share with their friends, family, and community!
It has been a delight meeting with pro-life people of all ages to brainstorm ways to promote the license plate and to pick the brains of local pregnancy resource heads and other leaders for ideas on how the funds from the plate sales can best be used to promote adoption in Texas. The response from grassroots leaders has been enthusiastic…so far we’ve been able to meet with representatives from the Austin Pregnancy Resource Center, Central Texas Life Care, the Diocese of Austin Office of Pro-Life Activities and Chaste Living, Hope Pregnancy Center of Hutto, Majella Society, Pro-Life Waco, Waco Right to Life, Redeemed for Life Ministries, Central Texas Voices for Life, Free Market Foundation, Concerned Women for America of Texas, Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas, New Wave Femmes for Life, and Dallas County Right to Life.
Check back soon for a photo gallery!
Baylor University students at John Pisciotta's Second Sunday luncheon
Russ and Jill Amerling with TAL Executive Director Joe Pojman, Ph.D., and public policy assistant Deirdre Cooper.
The TAL staff welcomed Russ and Jill Amerling, the national publicity coordinators of Choose Life, Inc., to Austin this week. On Friday, they toured the Capitol with Dr. Joe Pojman and TAL staff members.
The Amerlings and TAL staff ran into LyAnna Johnson, aide to state Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo), inside the Capitol.
The Choose Life Texas Tour kicks off tomorrow with a strategy meeting at Casa Chapala in Austin, but even if you’re unable to make it to one of the tour events, you can still help promote the Choose Life license plate legislation with the promotional downloads available at www.TXChoose-Life.org.
The support of Texas citizens is especially urgent in the months leading up to the next regular session of the Texas Legislature, which is scheduled to begin in January (it is held every two years). During this session, a bill to create the Choose Life license plate will be presented—and, we hope, passed.
Now is the time to contact your elected officials. Believe it or not, a handwritten or typed letter, email, or phone call to your state senator or house representative can have a huge influence. Texas Alliance for Life provides all the tools you need, including contact information and sample letters, at www.TXChoose-Life.org.
On Aug 5, the Texas Catholic Conference released a policy paper containing the following statement in support of the Choose Life license plate:
The Texas Catholic Conference supports legislation to create “Choose” life license plates. The purchase of these plates would enable Texans to fund abortion alternative providers and promote the Culture of Life throughout Texas.
The TCC bases its support for the plate on a number of references to official Church teaching on the right to life, including the Declaration on Procured Abortion from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
The first right of the human person is his life. . . . It does not belong to society, nor does it belong to public authority in any form to recognize this right for some and not for others . . . and it is strictly unjust to refuse it.
The Texas Catholic Conference is the association of the 15 Roman Catholic dioceses of the State of Texas, and is the Official Public Policy Voice of the Catholic Bishops of Texas.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot
TAL Executive Director Joe Pojman, Ph.D., announced at a TAL Leadership Circle luncheon on August 19 that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot has agreed to have the Office of the Attorney General be the administering agency for the funds collected from the sales of the Choose Life license plate once it is approved in Texas.
Of the $30 extra fee for the specialty plate, $22 will go to organizations such as pregnancy resource centers and The Gabriel Project that assist women who are experiencing crisis pregnancies and are considering adoption. The regulations for the use of the funds won’t be finalized until the bill is passed to create the plate, but we hope that the funds may also be used by resource centers to train their volunteers and workers to be able to effectively assist women who are considering giving up their child for adoption.
“Texas Alliance for Life has been a great champion for adoption,” said Attorney General Abbot during his address at the luncheon.
