This convinced Herndon-De La Rosa that abortion must be eradicated on a cultural, rather than legal, level – "by creating a post-Roe culture while Roe still stands."
O'Rourke's proposed policies and willingness to work across party lines, she said, will help address the factors that lead women to feel that they must choose abortion.
"Abortion becomes unnecessary when women have so much support from within their community that the one violent choice never even becomes an option in their minds," Herndon-De La Rosa said. "Abortion becomes unthinkable when women of color realize that having their children will not cost them their own lives because we have men like O'Rourke actually addressing the disproportionate number of minorities and children dying during childbirth."
However, Pojman countered that Texas already "provides a tremendous amount of help for pregnant women" and does much to offer alternatives to abortion.
The state has more than 200 pregnancy resource centers that offer free to help to women in need, he said, and some half of these centers receive state funding. In addition, the state's social service network provides health care for more than half of the minors in Texas, and the majority of childbirths in Texas are funded by Medicaid.
Rather than advancing the pro-life movement, Pojman argued, "O'Rourke would be a disaster."
"He has shown himself to be entirely hostile to protecting unborn children from abortion. He has voted to allow late abortions, he has voted to support tax funding for abortions. If he became senator and had his way, he would eliminate the Hyde Amendment, which has been demonstrated to have saved some 2 million babies from abortion since it was first implemented in the '70s."
Texas Alliance for Life has enthusiastically endorsed Ted Cruz for Senate. Pojman pointed to Cruz's consistent record of voting for pro-life measures, including a ban on late-term abortions and an end to federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
The U.S. bishops' guide to political engagement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, stresses the importance of examining issues rather than voting automatically for any political party. The bishops emphasize the right to life as a foundational human right in evaluating candidates and issues.
"As Catholics we are not single-issue voters. A candidate's position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter's support," the document says. "Yet if a candidate's position on a single issue promotes an intrinsically evil act, such as legal abortion, redefining marriage in a way that denies its essential meaning, or racist behavior, a voter may legitimately disqualify a candidate from receiving support."