Mimi Swartz writes in Texas Monthly that the Dobbs decision banning abortion has unleashed a broad assault on freedom in Texas. And it will get much, much worse as long as Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton remain in office.
I guess you could say that Texas giveth and Texas taketh away. For those too young to recall, the abortion-rights case Roe v. Wade was won in 1973 by two attorneys from the state, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. But from virtually the moment abortion became legal in all fifty states, some lawmakers here, and their supporters who opposed abortion rights, started chipping away at it. Half a century later, our Legislature had passed some of the most restrictive laws in the nation—and that was before Roe fell. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken Roeaway, with a 6–3 majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, some Texas leaders seem eager to exploit the opportunities that the ruling offers for further rollbacks of reproductive and sexual freedoms. Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office released employees from work early on the day of the decision to celebrate, declaring June 24 a new, annual agency holiday “to commemorate the sanctity of life.”
What could come next? Just about everything is on the table. Criminal penalties? They’ll be much stiffer, not just for those who aid Texans in getting abortions, but possibly for abortion-seekers themselves. Abortion pills? They were banned from sale for those more than seven weeks pregnant during last year’s legislative session. Enforcement mechanisms, however, are unclear. Most such medications arrive by mail from other states and countries, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that states “may not ban mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy,” suggesting that court battles lie ahead. Limits on contraception? You betcha. The same privacy rights that the Supreme Court overturned in the Dobbscase underlie what we have for decades considered the right to contraception and private sex acts between consenting adults—and, more recently, same-sex marriage. Indeed, just as the 2022 Texas GOP platform embraces “the humanity of the preborn child,” it also calls homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice.” Paxton told an interviewer he was “willing and able” to defend a Texas law—which was overturned by the Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas decision—that bans gay sex.
Texas statutes that predate Roe but were never overturned by the Legislature are now in effect, prohibiting all abortions except “for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.” A miscarriage could now be a death sentence for those whose doctors are averse to litigation or, worse—under the “trigger law” that takes effect thirty days after the Court’s ruling—to arrest on felony charges and a possible prison sentence, along with fines starting at $100,000. “It is kind of astounding that we are at a point where Roe will be overturned, but that won’t be enough,” said Democratic state representative Donna Howard, chair of the Texas Women’s Health Caucus. “The concern is that there will be those who will not only want to criminalize those who are seeking abortion but will use this as an opportunity to roll back access to contraceptives and other advancements that were made that the underlying privacy protection of Roe also supports.” While the law does not prohibit someone from ending their own pregnancy, a South Texas woman, Lizelle Herrera, was arrested and jailed earlier this year for ending hers, and the charges were dropped only after the case became a national controversy.
Unless you subscribe to The Texas Monthly as I do, you can’t read any more. Sadly, the rightwing fascists now running state government are flexing their muscles to stamp out the freedom of anyone they don’t like. Maybe everyone should subscribe to the Texas Monthly to see how low our nation can fall when mean-spirited bigots take control. It’s hard to believe that the same state elected the great Ann Richards as its governor. She was a strong, full-bore Texas liberal, who hated racism, sexism, and everything else that Greg Abbott represents.
You can bet Abbott and company will never allow a plebiscite over abortion. They want to rule the 3/5th with the 2/5. Now help me out: where have I seen that 3/5 before? I just can’t remember.
lol
Not surprising. In fascist states, women are marginalized. Then, the tyrants go after other segments, taking their rights.
Without body autonomy women in Texas and other states with similar laws that restrict a woman’s right to choose, women do not have the same rights as a man. In conservative states the overturning of Roe v Wade institutionalizes separate and unequal treatment for citizens based on gender. In fact, in Texas women have fewer rights and protections under the law than an unborn fetus, even if the fetus is the result of incest or rape. SCOTUS has gone off the deep end, and Texas is using the change to literally define women by and bind them to their reproductive capacities.
Let’s be fair. If women are forced by the state to give birth to their rapist’s child, their rapist should be forced to have a vasectomy.
Anyone who defends the idea that a minor should be forced to give birth to a child she cannot care for should be compelled by law to adopt a child who was born to a minor.
Any elected official who defends forced birth should be compelled to vote for programs to support the health and welfare of young mothers and their children.
Any elected official who defends forced birth should be
compelled to vote for programs to support the health and welfare of young mothers and their children.sterilized to ensure that they can’t propagate the nutball gene in the population.Fixed.
& just WHEN will Ken Paxton have his day in court?
Oh, right…maybe never, just like it45.
The times we live in…
There is no right to interracial marriage stated in the U. S. Constitution — but Clarence Thomas lives in an interracial marriage in spite of state laws that outlawed it but which were overturned because THE 9th AMENDMENT SAYS THAT RIGHTS DO NOT HAVE TO BE STATED IN THE CONSTITUTION IN ORDER TO BE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. There is no constitutional right to privacy mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but We the People have it because of the 9th Amendment. Here is the 9th Amendment: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Then, the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause protects all those unstated rights. The right to abortion does NOT have to be stated in the Constitution in order to be a constitutional right…and there are many, many more unstated rights.
Benjamin Franklin, key Founding Father of America, shaper and signer of our Constitution, published a handbook titled “The American Instructor” that featured a long, detailed section on do-it-yourself abortion and conception prevention. The book was very popular throughout America, especially in the many farming towns where unwanted pregnancies were an economic hardship on farming families.
Franklin’s book should be republished and complimentary copies given to each of the “originalists” on the Court who claim that America has always been opposed to abortion.