I am finding many people that don’t understand the abortion law Texas put into effect on Sept 1st. The Supreme Court has chosen not to block the law. This is the closest threat to women’s healthcare rights and privacy since 1973, even though the majority of Americans support a woman’s right to choose.
The law states anyone (truly, anyone, even a stranger) can report and bring suit against anyone who “aids or abets” a woman getting an abortion and the person would earn $10,000 plus their legal fees if the suit is successful. This means some random person can sue the doctor, nurses, medical assistants, her partner, her mom, her Uber driver, her psychologist, ANYone helping her. The law even applies in the cases of rape or incest. So much for medical privacy and freedom. This is a bounty-hunting law against women.
Sound crazy? IT IS. But it’s the only strategy that has gone through so far, and that means every single conservative-run state will do the same.
Rich people can still get abortions because they’ll figure out a way like they always do.
Will the suits go through and be successful? That is a moot point for a law that is meant to and will scare people off. It is meant to make people stop helping. It is meant to leave the girl or woman at the mercy of her circumstances, even when someone else puts her in that position.
I’m not of childbearing age anymore, and I live in a more liberal state, so why do I care?
I care because they are my sisters.
I care because while I respect someone else’s choice to never have an abortion, I also know there are times when someone needs one, and that’s her business.
I care because I get tired of men enjoying their fun with women’s bodies but not respecting our bodies, our choices, our privacy.
I care because I fucking care.
I care because I’m a fighter.
I care because when I worked in a women’s clinic, I still remember the migrant farmworkers who came in for abortions after they were raped in the field. Their fingers so stained with strawberry, shy and toothless, no companion with them, then waiting for hours for a ride home. I remember the girl raped by her uncle. I still remember the story about a woman driving from South Dakota to another state for hours and hours for an abortion in the winter and her car slid on ice and she died.
If I lived in Texas I would be volunteering to walk women from their cars, with my chosen Halloween mask of the day and my guns out since it’s an open carry state. I would stand my ground for those women.
We need you, men, to stand up for us. We need you to stand with us. We need Republicans and Christians who support a woman’s right to choose to stand up, speak up, help out. Most Americans support freedom and a woman’s right to choose. If you don’t support abortion, I get it. Nobody WANTS to do it. But please don’t inject yourself and your beliefs into her uterus and pretend you belong there.
I have plenty of interesting ideas for laws and taxes in retaliation to these privacy-crushing ridiculous laws, but I’ll spare you my evil ideas. For now.
Anyways, I guess this means another war to fight. It just never fucking ends.
#DontTreadOnMeEither #ILoveJesusToo #ILoveBabies #Freedom #Privacy #ProChoice #StayOutofMyUterus #MindYourOwnBusiness #RiseUp
Photo by Johanna Ljungblom from FreeImages
