Texas’ new anti-abortion law is utter madness. It has opened up a serious can of worms, and not just because health care providers dare not perform abortions for fear of being harshly fined. Even if you don’t like abortion, you should hate and fear this law. Why? First, it legitimizes vigilantism. Second, it is the camel’s nose in the tent. If Texas can get away with offering bounties for turning in people who provide or aid and abet abortions, how much longer before similar laws do the same for non-binary sex, or undocumented immigrants, or supporting genuine science, or bashing the Dallas Cowboys?
S.B. 8 is absolute. There are no loopholes to allow exceptions in case of rape or incest, only for medical emergencies. And how will women be able to prove a medical emergency? No doubt many will try this route, only to get a beaurocratic runaround. Also, any attempt to get this exemption will expose them to Fetus Vigilantes hungry for payouts.
You know that people are going to abuse this law. Hate your neighbors? Claim that the Ms. was planning to have an abortion. Hey, you saw her drive past a Planned Parenthood facility or OB/GYN office! She was definitely contemplating the procedure, or maybe she dropped off a friend for one. Since anybody who is at all involved in an abortion can be sued, even someone who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or says the wrong thing within earshot of the wrong person, will be in peril.
This law will bring out the worst in a lot of people, resulting in witch hunts and persecution on an unfathomable scale. The fact that people can snitch anonymously, and that their evidence can be very flimsy, makes it all the more dangerous. Encouraging people to squeal on their neighbors is a tactic that oppressive regimes use to keep the masses in line.
S.B. 8 means that, if a creep rapes a woman, he can claim she sought an abortion – even if she didn’t get pregnant – and get his 10-train bounty from her. So, the more women he prongs, the more lucre he can potentially collect. A lovely way to make a living. Or, a fellow could try to blackmail a woman or girl he wants to hump by threatening to report her, giving her a choice of possibly forking over 10 biggies – and exposing her to persecution by anti-choice activists – or spreading her legs. S.B. 8 glorifies the worst aspects of toxic masculinity.
And what about women who suffer miscarriages? What if they didn’t kiss the right arses and are accused of attempting abortion? A miscarriage is tragic enough; adding on prosecution for a crime that never even happened is cruel beyond cruel.
What if somebody can’t pay the bounty? A lot of people don’t have an extra 10 grand lying around. What if the person forced to pay up is living paycheck to paycheck? Can employers garnish the checks of such people – thus making it even harder to pay the bills, keep up with rent, and feed the family? People in desperate circumstances will do terrible things, which I need not list here.
Meanwhile, Governor Abbott has banned mask mandates intended to stem the spread of COVID-19, and also signed legislation that removed the requirement to have a license in order to own a firearm. In other words, Texas values only the lives of embryos and fetuses. Once you’re born, tough noogies – you have to run a gauntlet of dangerous viruses and armed bugnuts.
Already people are fighting back, and happily they are doing so with creative nonviolence. The “squeal” page set up by Texas Right to Life has become a target for phony reports and furry porn, and while writing this I learned that GoDaddy has closed down the site. Activists are organizing marches and protests around the country. Petitions by the busload are making the rounds demanding protection for reproductive freedom.
This evil must be squelched before it spreads to other states – or worse, becomes national law. We need to get progressive people registered to vote. We need to expand the Supreme Court so Biden can add justices who will protect our rights. Because if we cannot stop the tide of fascism with ballots – no, please don’t go there, because then the only two paths are increasing oppression until we envy people in Communist China, or a revolution that will not be peaceful. We must fight back in every nonviolent, clever, and preferably legal way we can now.
7 Responses to “SOUND OFF! 9/4/21 – Terror in Texas”
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Thank you, Freya for another great column. This TX law is ALMOST unbelievable, but here we are. Many other states have similar bills ready to go, including here in OH.I’m trying not to despair. Let’s remember that @70% of Americans support keeping Roe v. Wade,another reason to fight voter suppression—–its all part of the fascist agenda. Glad to hear Biden,Harris,Pelosi speak out. Take care and fight on,all.
Thank you again, Freya. A gem every week. And this week, describing the indescribable.
My understanding is that the bounty does now apply to turning in the woman herself. I don’t know how they missed that. Perhaps they thought that putting the bounty on anyone else in any way involved would serve to isolate her (as it certainly will) and deepen her despair (steal the last vestiges of hope she might have. We’ll have to wait and see whther the courts will back this up – it sounds wildly unconstitutional to me, and, as you also pint out, uncomfortably reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany. and Stalin’s Russia and any number of other authoritarian regimes.
Certainly the law is not in any sense about life, but ablout controlling women and women’s bodies. One of the legislators publicly admitted that when asked about in vitro ferrtilization, ahere any number of eggs are fertilized in the lab, and the doctors pick the one or two strongest to insert to give the woman the best chance, and any others become medical waste. The legislator reportedly tond the questioner they were not interested in those because they were not in a uterus. And there you have it
Unreal. Yes, I read that GO DADDY closed the site, thank the Lord.
Abbott fails to take action of Covid-19 for Texans, and now this.
I hope all Texans get up and fight over this, and that we are and needing to fight this SB8 tooth and nail.
Thanks, Freya for your great post.
Great posting, Freya. Just too bad it has to be about negative actions against Women Rights.
Despicable what Texas has done to again, like you and Pat both mentioned, aBBott has shown no care what-so- ever for the people in his state with banning against mask mandates.
What the f*** is wrong with these so-called leaders?? They’re worthless, doing nothing for women or the people.
Like our country is going backwards instead of advancing forward. Women deserve so much more.
I have been and will continue signing all sorts of petitions for the past two days to fight against what the Supreme Court has done.
I agree, that it’s truly unconstitutional and we must continue fighting as much as we can.
Thanks again, Freya
The East-German Stasi has nothing on Texas. Their snitches didn’t have the backing of the law and a large payout for successful snitching.
And as you point out, Freya, snitching won’t stop at pointing the finger at true “culprits” but at everyone that you don’t like. This will lead to even more division in Texas than there already is and I fear Democrats in Republican counties will have to bear the brunt of it.
You are so right, Freya, to call on Democrats and the Biden administration to fight these laws tooth and nail. If not, the country will turn into the fascist state it threatened to become under TFG despite Biden having won the election fair and square.
Thanks Freya. The news on the spamming the GoDaddy website led to Planned Parenthood getting a TX court to suspend the law for them and restraint of implementing the law against that anti-abortion group, who went to a website that welcomed Parler and other alt-right sites kicked off of other platforms…https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-judge-sides-with-planned-parenthood-in-fight-against-six-week-banhttps://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-abortion-whistleblowing-site-gets-new-home-with-provider-known-for-hosting-extremists?
Also have seen that Free Speech folks see First Amendment violations likely and are prepared to challenge on those grounds. HuffPo’s article on the related SCOTUS dissent includes link to pdf of the three written dissents (Roberts comes first in the series; Breyer did not write a separate one).
Some of you might know that I’m a Patient Advocate at Planned Parenthood here in Calif. That means I’ll hold your hand during the procedure, speak with you before or after, dry tears, etc. We already have patients who come from other parts of the country and the world because of DRACONIAN conditions such as what Texas has just imposed on the women there. (BASTARDS!)
I wish they could listen to the women we help every day. I wish their misogyny could allow some empathy in their hearts. Silly wishes, of course…they truly believe that THEY HAVE THEIR GOD ON THEIR SIDE as they punish these SLUTS.
We need to begin a mail order business of shipping the ”abortion pill” in a plain wrapper. It’ll work.