Texas’ new state law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy has been put into effect this September. A law that has many physicians, abortion clinics and women deeply concerned.
Six weeks of pregnancy is way before many women even know they are pregnant. But time frame is not the only thing concerning about this shady law.
The law, known as Senate Bill 8, “allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion — including those who give a woman a ride to a clinic or provide financial assistance to obtain an abortion. Private citizens who bring these suits don’t need to show any connection to those they are suing.” – NPR news.1
What’s even more disturbing, is that the law makes no exceptions whatsoever for rape or incest cases. There’s only one for medical emergencies. Definitely, this is one of the most severe bans on abortion in the country so far.
As soon as a fetal cardiac activity is detectable (around six weeks), abortion is off the table for any women. However, “medical and legal experts say the term is misleading because embryos don’t possess a heart at that developmental stage.”2
What’s tricky about this law is that it provides a viable option for any person to bring civil lawsuits against abortion providers, something that already has had heavy repercussions.
“Physicians and executives at Texas’ nearly two dozen abortion clinics described turning away hundreds of patients… One Planned Parenthood location in Houston normally performed about two dozen abortions daily, but in the 10 days after the law took effect, the clinic had done a total of 52. Clinics in nearby states, meanwhile, say they are struggling to meet surging demand and care for their own residents is being delayed to accommodate women making long trips from Texas… At a Planned Parenthood clinic in Oklahoma City, more than 60% of the 219 appointments over the next two weeks are for women from Texas. Doctors say recent patients from Texas have included rape victims”. – AP News.3
Even if the law is put on hold by the Supreme Court, it would take time for some clinics to reset their operations, considering there might be immediate appeals. “I believe that, without court-ordered relief in the next couple of weeks, SB8 will shutter most if not all of the remaining abortion clinics in Texas,” president Amy Hagstrom Miller of the abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health, stated.3
The law makes practically everyone involved in the procedure liable to suits: doctors, nurses, insurance companies and “even Uber drivers who help take women to clinics, could be vulnerable.”4
And, just to make things worse: “Anyone who successfully sues an abortion provider under this law could be awarded at least $10,000. And to prepare for that, Texas Right to Life has set up what it calls a “whistleblower” website where people can submit anonymous tips about anyone they believe to be violating the law.”.1 As if the law provided regular citizens with bounty hunter rewards for disrupting anonymous women’s personal decision making will about their own bodies.
How far can patriarchy really go? For how long will we look away when the laws imposed by the system are made from people who doesn’t suffer the consequences?
This bill affects and ties women’s reproductive rights entirely. It enforces them to carry on with a decision imposed upon them. How can a woman be forced to carry her pregnancy against her will in this day and time? How come women suffer the consequences brought by the law and random strangers that directly affect their decisions about their own life?
If the federal courts pass the law, this might be a dangerous precedent for other conservative states to follow. Of course, there are multiple legal challenges still underway and Biden’s administration scrutiny. Nonetheless, women’s free is already at stake nationwide.
“Family members, abortion funds, rape crisis counselors and other medical professionals could be open to lawsuits, under the broad language in the bill, according to legal experts and physicians who opposed the measure.” – The Texas Tribunes.2
Practically, anyone involved in the abortion decision process gets affected. A decision that should only concern women.
Only in 2019, 56,600 abortions were performed on Texas residents.2 And, although that’s an alarming number, each and every one of those numbers has a history to tell on its own: traumatizing rape incidents, financially unprepared parents, emotionally unprepared parents, mentally unstable mothers, bad timing and unreadiness, abusive couples, immature partner relationship, not independent enough to provide a decent life for the baby…
Whichever the case, this is a highly personal decision to make where dozens of dire circumstances come into play. A decision that should not be forced by laws and administrations.
Women are entitled to their reproductive rights. It is them who carry the baby, nurture them, becoming lifetime guardians responsible for another human life. How will that quality of life, for both parents and child, turn out to be if any of the reasons listed above are the main protagonist of an unprepared parenthood?
This law surpasses any women’s decision making capability and should be reconsidered in court if we are to preserve civil rights and a more balanced way to protect life and free will itself.
1 McCammon, S. (2021, September 1). What the Texas abortion ban does – and what it means for other states. Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1033202132/texas-abortion-ban-what-happens-next
2 Najmabadi, S. (2021, May 19). Gov. Greg Abbott signs into law one of nation’s strictest abortion measures, banning procedure as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Retrieved from: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/18/texas-heartbeat-bill-abortions-law/
3 Weber, P & Gresko, J. (2021, September 16). EXPLAINER: The Texas abortion law’s swift impact, and future. Retrieved from: https://apnews.com/article/health-austin-texas-lawsuits-coronavirus-pandemic-e4352ad8f095612ac249bb8477ddc637
4 Feuer, A. (2021, September 10). The Texas abortion law creates a kind of bounty hunter. Here’s how it works. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/us/politics/texas-abortion-law-facts.html
