Bishop Daniel Garcia statement on pro-life legislation

The following are the prepared remarks of Auxiliary Bishop Daniel E. Garcia for a press conference organized by the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops on April 18, 2017:

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops is pleased to support this package of pro-life bills that provides incremental progress to reduce abortion in Texas.

In 2015, more than 55,000 unborn children were killed by abortion in our state. Each one of them was made in God’s image. Each one of them was a precious child of our Lord. Each one of them was—and continues to be—precious in his sight.

The tragedy of our nation is that the courts of the United States do not just permit abortion. The courts protect it. They guarantee it. Realizing our helplessness before the power of the courts, we are tempted to despair. But especially in this time of Easter, we remember that suffering and death are not the end. Life—life­—is the final victor.

Legislators often have to vote for legislation that isn’t perfect. But we thank and praise legislators whose pro-life position is well-known. We also thank them for voting in a way that diminishes the harmful effects of abortion and fortifies public morality against the culture of death.

A vote to protect human life—even if that protection is incremental—is exactly what St. John Paul II praised in his life and his work. (Evangelium Vitae, 73)

While we don’t have the votes on the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade, and abolish abortion in our nation, we must press onward in our efforts to save lives in our state, and establish greater reverence for life in Texas.

We applaud these legislators who filed these strong bills. We thank every Texas lawmaker who advances a culture of life. May God bless them and bring their work to fruition.