Texas governor signs extreme six-week abortion ban into law

[BeyondGeography]

Source: The Guardian

Today, the Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed into law one of the most extreme six-week abortion bans in the US, despite strong opposition from the medical and legal communities, who warn the legislation could topple the state’s court system and already fragile reproductive healthcare network.

“This bill ensures that every unborn child who has a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion,” said Abbott, flanked by several members of the Texas legislature this morning.

Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), passed by both chambers of the Republican-dominated Texas legislature, bars abortion at six weeks of pregnancy with no exception for rape or incest, amounting to a near-total ban as most women are not aware they are pregnant at this stage. While a dozen states have passed similar so-called “heartbeat” bills – bans on abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected – none have yet been enforced due to court challenges.

Unlike those measures, the Texas version absolves the state from enforcing the law. Instead it allows any private citizen the extraordinary authority to sue an abortion provider – they do not need to be connected to the patient or even reside in the same state, opening up the floodgates to harassing and frivolous civil lawsuits that could shut down clinics statewide.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/19/texas-abortion-ban-law-greg-abbott?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[Arkansas Granny]

1. And taxpayer dollars will be wasted when it winds up in court and is declared unconstitutional.

[jmowreader]

2. I think I will run for Texas governor

The job isn’t that hard; because of the way Texas’ government is designed, the vast majority of the power most states give to the governor is wielded by the Lieutenant Governor.

My campaign platform will have one plank: I will have every bill sent to me for signature reviewed by a panel of three Democratic and three Republican lawyers. If it is their opinion that the bill is unconstitutional I will veto it and save the state money by not having to fight it out in court.

[Warpy]

10. Remember Brian Schweitzer?

He ran for governor of Montana as a total progressive and won.

When the lege started to play to the preachers or the plutocrats and the legislation was particularly repulsive, he'd veto it with a branding iron.

I always loved his style. Too bad he had enough sense to despise DC. He would have been a breath of badly needed fresh air.

So if you become governor of Texas, order a branding iron.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Schweitzer

[jmowreader]

21. You mean...

...the guy who decided he and his bride would spend their honeymoon buying a center-pivot sprinkler for their farm - and she's still married to him? Schweitzer is a hell of a guy.

He's also the one who got the National Governors Association to reschedule its new-governor training sessions because they were when calving season was, and he needed to be on his farm for that.

Fun story: Montana was the last state in the nation with an open-access statehouse. You could just walk right in and roam around, no questions asked. Well, while Schweitzer was governor a family of tourists went into the statehouse with their lunch in hand. They looked around for a room with a table in it that wasn't being used, and found the executive conference room. Schweitzer noticed someone was in there and went in. He just started shooting the breeze with them for a few minutes and told them to enjoy their lunch before he left. While he was walking out, one of the family asked, "what do you do here?" Schweitzer said, "oh, I'm the governor."

[murielm99]

25. I remember him.

He talked about his veto pen when he was our keynote speaker at the Illinois Democratic County Chairs' brunch.

He spoke masterfully about the Canadian health care system, too.

[walkingman]

3. That is before many women even know they are pregnant. Weirdo white evangelicals.

I also read that Texas is not allowing any mention of KKK or White Supremacy in the social studies textbooks. My home state has become the most backwards state in the union. The only solution to this damn mess is to vote out these nasty white people.

[FakeNoose]

9. Exactly right

I can see this law creating a new demand for the so-called "abortion pill" because Texas women will soon have no other choice.

Thank God I don't live in Texas. But if I did, I'd be sure to keep it secret once I discovered that I was pregnant. I'd never want to let the guy know one way or the other. How else does a women retain any privacy or reproduction rights if she didn't do exactly this?

The Handmaid's Tale is just around the corner!

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

4. Next steps

1. Put women in prison if they have a miscarriage no matter the reason.

2. Allowing men to be excused for raping their wives if they claim they were trying to have children.

3. Making women who are not able to have children second class citizens.

4. Whatever else that may be as absolutely cruel as possible to women.

[Paladin]

6. Jeez, don't give the lunatics any additional ideas.

I can see Abbott and his pro-birth supporters supporting all of your statements.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

7. Scary

[Politicub]

15. 5. Don't refer to pregnant women by name. They are to be known as hosts or husks.

Because once they are pregnant, they lose all agency. Their bodies belong to the state; only the fetus matters.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

16. I would not be surprised if they tried/did that.

[Moostache]

5. Time to introduce offensive countermeasures in force...

OK...the courts are stacked, the SCOTUS is going to kill RvW and the states with mentally deficient, Republican majorities are going to ban reproductive health care rights for women...what needs to happen?

1) Women - stop having consensual sex with men, period. No exceptions. Time to hit the fucking poor excuses for men who use these laws to try and control women's lives, bodies and choices. There should be such an extreme drop in birth rate following this that it CANNOT be ignored. So, no more nookie-nookie at all.

2) Start filing 'child welfare bills' that demand prenatal care - 100% covered by the state - for ALL pregnancies, period. No women should EVER be told that we have the ability to protect you and the baby and obtain far greater survivability rates for pregnancy and then be told "but you can't pay for it, so you are sentenced to die in child birth" and then they must also admit "fuck that fetus...we only care about punishing the woman for having sex, not the actual life of the child, that fucker is on its own steam, especially if the mother dies in childbirth".

3) Demand that every state which bans abortion immediately opens an orphanage and child care system for unwanted babies - to serve their every need from birth until age 18. This is to include food, shelter, medicine, well-care visits, pre-K and elementary and high school education, clothing and supervision during the hours of 6 AM to 10 PM daily. Don't like that? Well maybe the state should not play a role in child birthing decisions then, huh?

This fight to maintain legal access to abortion is over, and RvW will fall to mark its demise - a 6-3, zealot packed SCOTUS makes that a guarantee. So its time to embrace the alternatives and make these arrogant, religious zealots PAY for their edicts. If society wants all births to result in live births, but WON'T support the born, then we must show them the results of their hateful policies. We must show them dying, malnourished babies. We must show then criminal acts by unsupervised kids - and not the sanitized versions either; when someone is shot by a 9 year old roaming around with a gun looking for power over their situation and poverty, then HDTV was made to show details - brains, blood, torn apart chest cavities, skulls ripped apart by bullets - no more blurred images, no more sanitized crime scenes with yellow tape and no actual images.

The idea that the government will effectively manage such a massive invasion into the private lives of American women - exactly how do they propose to monitor EVERY pregnancy in the first place? - is laughable on its face. These are the same people who are screaming about not taking vaccines because ... I don't know, crackpot reasons? - yet they also wish for unenforceable laws and forced dangerous, back alley procedures for women.

I am pro-life...pro-life of the existing woman, an actual citizen and not so concerned about the fate of replicating clumps of cells in her body. The choice to carry a baby - at risk or not - belongs to the woman who's body would be a 9 month land lord with no rent, tons of damage and a constant threat to their own life throughout the experience.

Want to see anti-abortion laws collapse under their own stupidity? Start passing laws that PAY WOMEN for pregnancies, health care for the duration - before, during and after birth for mother and child. The fervor for these asinine laws will cool in direct proportion to the amount of money they will cost.

Pro-Life? Fucking PROVE IT...I am a justified skeptic of their true motives.

[FakeNoose]

11. These are the best suggestions I've seen

Every woman has the right to CHOOSE whether she can be or wants to be a parent.
Just like every man gets to CHOOSE.

Thanks for a great post!

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

17. 3 b. Every person who votes for these things should be required by law

to take these children into their homes and support them through college. No government help whatsoever.

[murielm99]

26. I have said something similar to my mother many times.

I ask her what she is doing to support all the unwanted children. I ask her why her home is not filled with children she has adopted and fostered, at her own expense.

[jmowreader]

24. You've been reading Aristophanes again, haven't you?

His comedy Lysistrata described one woman's plan to end the Peloponnesian War by denying men any sex.

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/7700

Strangely enough, your plan would probably work.

Would you like to know how I know the Republicans don't actually care about the child? You can't deduct the pre-born child from your taxes. Being able to do so would help a LOT of people - those nine months are extremely expensive - but it's never even been discussed.

[Traildogbob]

8. Alternative to abortion in Texas

Give birth to the child, then shot it after birth. No penalties. Just thought all the crying was protesting. Put it in the street with a Dem sign, then run over it. Problem solved.
If you could prove a fetus is a Lefty, GQP would fund the abortions, Abbott would make it mandatory to abort those.

[FakeNoose]

12. I know you don't mean this, but it demonstrates the absurd lengths

... one must go to when discussing the subject of abortion in Texas.

[Traildogbob]

30. 🤜🤛

A fetus is like an unopened, sealed in plastic collectors comic book to these fakers. After it leaves the package, it’s just colored paper, not worth a dime.

[NurseJackie]

14. Someone will claim that they "feared for their life".

[Lonestarblue]

13. Someone needs to file a bill demanding equal treatment of reproductive choices.

Since you can’t discriminate by sex, all men should be barred from making their reproductive choice to have a vasectomy. See how they like having their choices taken away.

[dalton99a]

18. A truly vile piece of legislation

In a statement, abortion rights advocate Aimee Arrambide said the legal changes in SB8 and HB 1515 are so broad that they “would allow a rapist to sue their victim’s counselor, physician or family and recover a minimum of $10,000 if they were successful.”

https://www.kut.org/politics/2021-04-28/texas-attorneys-say-gop-abortion-bills-could-open-the-door-to-unlimited-lawsuits-from-strangers

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. The GQP is pro-birth not pro life

[peppertree]

22. +1

Once the baby's born, you're on your own.

And if said baby happens to be 'ethnic' in some way, it's "kill it!"

[DownriverDem]

23. What frustrates me

is that we were all warned in 2016 about letting the repubs/trump win. How do those folks feel now that just couldn't vote for HRC?

[LiberatedUSA]

31. Hillary Clinton warned us. She warned about the SCOTUS.

And she warned the consequences of what would would happen, should a loss happen in 2016. All the Republicans have ever cared about is the judicial branch of government.

Now there is no going back. The GOP has shown us that the real power is in judges and the name of the game is “Ethics Be Damned” when it comes to gaining seats. Ironically, their strategy could end up costing them the Supreme Court if we can manage to expand it. When one side decides to be ruthless, the other side has a choice to make. Sit back and take it or don’t.

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Is sperm being treated with equality?

"No sperm should be wasted" as we all recall the Monty Python song.

Sperm may not have a heartbeat, but it has "wiggle".

[IcyPeas]

29. women have to start screaming about their periods. menstruation. blood.

these men have no clue about women's reproductive system. Send him bloody tampons and pads.

[NotANeocon]

37. +1,000

[LetMyPeopleVote]

32. I hope that Susan Sarandon and Jill Stein are happy

Control of the SCOTUS and the future of Roe v. Wade was on the ballot in 2016.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

33. I heard one anti-choicer say that ultimately even birth control will be banned.

Six weeks is a pretty big step in that direction.

[bucolic_frolic]

34. It does make pregnancy by rape legal, go after the law on that angle

Can the state legalize criminal acts?

[LymphocyteLover]

35. this is pure evil-- pure torture for women

MOTHERFUCKING GOP!!

[NotANeocon]

36. More than 70% zygote failure !!!

Early embryo mortality in natural human reproduction: What the data say

When these assholes start insisting on funeral services for tampons and S napkins then I will accept that they believe what they say. Until that time this issue has SFA to do with ethics and morality and everything to do with assigning second class status to women's rights.