My name is Sarah Zarr and I am the Texas and Southern Regional Manager for Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action. I represent the nearly 100 Students for Life groups in schools and colleges all across the state of Texas and speak on behalf of the Pro-Life Generation, which makes up over 1,200 student groups across the country. I am here in support of SB 1647, The Texas Abolition Strategy; SB 9, The Human Life Protection Act; SB 394, Chemical Abortion Regulation; SB 650, to stop funding of abortion services; and SB 802, the Every Mother Matters Act.

I am often told that because Texas is pro-life, my job must be easier here. Yet I sadly inform that we aren’t protecting human lives to the fullest extent of the law yet. Texas is in a unique position to lead because the rest of the union looks to us to be a leader especially when it comes to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We also sadly are the state where abortion began, so we have a responsibility to end it and lead the country back to valuing human life and empowering women by providing life-affirming choices and by stopping the predatory abortion industry.

I’m here because it’s time we stop pushing for abortion and push for solutions to the human rights and women’s rights issues of our day. I’m here today because — despite forceful pressure from doctors — my mom courageously stood firm and advocated for a solution that would give myself and my mom a chance to live. When the doctors found out my mom was pregnant after two kids and difficult health issues and being told she couldn’t have more kids, they immediately told her to undergo an abortion. My parents went to doctor after doctor who would not take my mom’s case; they only offered abortion. Finally, a doctor agreed to care for my mom and me. That physician had my parents sign a waiver saying they refused abortion, even as the doctor kept saying “it’s your legal right to abort,” adding more pressure, and not alternative solutions. My parents were strong amidst this adversity and told the doctor it wasn’t their right to kill me. Sure enough, there were medical interventions and solutions that got my mom and me through the pregnancy.

I shudder to think how many women are pressured by loved ones or even their doctors, who should be treating all human beings as patients, and who are given no other choices and fall prey to the abortion industry taking away their baby. All because our laws and our culture have devalued the baby inside the womb who is just as human as you and I, has his or her own distinct DNA from conception. That which is human is a human from the beginning, and we know the preborn child is human by the simple scientific observation that like produces like.

Yet our laws imply that these humans don’t have human rights. That the preborn child needs to be human plus something else in order to be considered a person who is valuable and protected under the law. Abortion apologists argue that children need to be human plus viable; human plus having the ability to feel pain, human plus having no disabilities, human plus being a certain age, human plus being born into perfect circumstance, or simply

human plus being “wanted.” This has led us to believing it’s okay to end a human life at its earliest stages. These are all just attempts to justifying killing the preborn.

These qualifications are what led to every other personhood abuse and genocide we’ve seen throughout history. Human plus a certain sex, human plus a certain skin color, human plus a certain race or religion. This discrimination against entire groups of humans is what led to slavery and the Holocaust. It’s what necessitated the women’s suffrage movement. We have to protect humanity because people are human, not because they meet a stage or degree or environment that we arbitrarily decide qualifies them for protection. Clearly, attempting to “define” humans leads to abuse and slaughter. We have to treat both mom and baby as a patient, in healthcare and under the law.

In an unexpected turn of events, my mom and I almost died on the day I was born because my mom developed HELLP Syndrome. The doctors performed an emergency c-section and placed me in an incubator at 34 weeks. And they saved my mom. If the doctors would have aborted me because of my mom’s life-threatening scenario, we would likely both be dead, as a late term abortion is a 3-day process and a life-saving c-section is an immediate solution.

My story raises an important question: What if we lead with solutions? What if we reject the discriminatory status quo of the abortion industry, that we simply kill children when their lives present challenges? Abortion doesn’t resolve any of the problems that the abortion industry uses to sell it. Right after undergoing an abortion, a woman is right back in whatever circumstance that led her to the corrupt, manipulative, and predatory abortion industry in the first place. The great state of Texas has the resources, organizations, and programs in place to provide solutions for the mother, baby, father, and family. Intentionally killing a child is never necessary or good.

My generation is waking up to the fact that we have grown up amongst a grave injustice. We have grown up in a culture of death, where we are thankful for the very fact that someone didn’t end our life before we had the opportunity of fully live our lives. That’s why we are the Pro-Life Generation. Through a poll of registered Millennial and Gen Z voters commissioned by Students for Life and published by our Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, we know that life is a key issue for Millennials and Gen Z. Contrary to popular belief, we want to see abortion restricted or completely stopped.

· Almost 7 out of 10 Millennials and Gen Z want to vote on abortion-related policy.

· Less than 2 out of 10 want unlimited abortion through all 9 months, for any reason at all and sometimes with taxpayer funding, which Roe allows.

· More than 7 out of 10 support limits on abortion.

· The Hyde Amendment and Mexico City policy have support. 48% of Millennial and Gen Z taxpayers do not want their money used to pay for abortions, compared to only 36% who do.

· Almost HALF supported banning abortion after a heartbeat detected, compared to only 38% opposed.

· By a margin of 55% to 25%, Millennials and Gen Z supported requiring in-person purchase of deadly Chemical Abortion Pills to prevent abusers from anonymously buying them online to slip to women without their consent.

· Millennials and Gen Z, by a margin of 57% to 30%, oppose Roe when they learn it allows for abortion through all 9 months.

Please hear the Pro-Life Generation when we tell you that we are against abortion. Say Yes to these pro-life bills and give all baby Texans and all Texas women and families the same opportunities that my mom and I have because we chose to lead with solutions. You have the ability to lead this country while all eyes look to Texas to end abortion and to pursue a culture of life. The Future Is Anti-Abortion.