In Texas, every level of state government is controlled by Christian fundamentalist zealots. A cornerstone of their agenda is to completely eliminate abortion. They are working to overcome a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2016 that struck down a Texas law which had forced about half of the state’s clinics to close. This year several measures are “swiftly” moving the country’s second most populous state towards that goal, as the Houston Chronicle stated. Most recently, the state Senate passed a “wrongful birth” law that, when the governor signs it into law, will prevent parents from seeking damages from doctors who don’t inform them that their child will likely have severe disabilities.
The point of this law is emphatically not to defend the rights of children with life threatening illnesses or disabilities. It is to punish women, and families, who are unable to provide expensive, lifelong medical care for kids with severe medical problems. Most of all, it is to force women to go through with childbirth whether they want to or not, by depriving them of vital medical information that may influence their decision. A leader of Pro-Choice Texas said the proposed law “violates every tenet of health care and the way physicians should treat their patients”. Attacks on women’s right to control their own lives and bodies are horrible enough when they happen anywhere. But if anyone thinks that measures like this will be limited to “red states”, think again. On Donald Trump’s first day in office he signed an executive order ending U.S. funding for international organizations that advise women on abortion. The Trump/Pence Regime and like-minded governments in dozens of states are launching a full court press to move their entire fascist agenda forward. They are moving to install judges who oppose abortion, and even contraception. They must be derailed.