Texas' New Law

It's not about women's health care

By now you’ve heard about the new abortion law recently adopted in the state of Texas. Taking effect September 1, it is the most restrictive one in our country as of right now. A woman can’t get an abortion before she knows she’s pregnant. How’s that for an intelligent law? Abortions are banned after six weeks of pregnancy. Most women don’t know they are pregnant by then. All types of pregnancies are banned including those due to rape and incest. The only exclusion is when the mother’s life is threatened. I’m surprised they left that one in.

Additionally, the law is set up so anyone can sue the women getting the abortion, the doctor, the nurses, anyone who drove the women to the appointment. Basically, this law is set up in order to advance the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The people behind it want lawsuits from citizens who have not been injured so the abortion issue will go in front of the newly minted conservative Supreme Court with the view that they will overturn Roe v. Wade.

According to Pew research as of May 6, “…Today, a 59% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.” Read full article here.

This law is not about women’s health care. It isn’t about family planning. Enlightened men should be just as upset about this as women are. This law is about forcing one group’s set of beliefs onto an entire country where abortion rights are favored by the majority. It is also about controlling women and their bodies.

Of course, most of the people who oppose abortion, who feel they have the right to tell women what to do with their bodies, are members of the political conservative right. In the last year, I have been amused by how many of these same people have been upset by the government telling them they had to wear masks and socially distance due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Some of them even said, “Don’t tell me what I can do with my body.” For them, I guess it all depends on who’s doing the telling, whose body is in question, and whether or not it falls into their line of thinking.

We’ll have to stay tuned and see where this one ends up!

Krysta