General News Texas passes strict anti-abortion law--leaves 8 clinics open

It's about restricting women's rights and increasing control over women's bodies, especially along class lines. Rich conservatives will still be able to get an abortion for their wife/daughter/girlfriend/prostitute.

I'll belive that they're "pro life" as soon as they abolish the death penalty and provide decent meals to all school children.

 

I live here, and have for over 50 years. This is the "death by 1000 cuts" tactic that anti-abortion advocates have taken since day one in Texas. It's a sad state of affairs, pun intended.

At least the legislature wasn't able to put a "marriage = 1 man, 1 woman" bill through before the upcoming Supreme Court decision. I grew up loving this state, but I can't live here much longer. Not many blue dots in the field of red.

 

The majority of abortions carried out after 20 weeks are due to severe complications discovered on the routine 20 week pregnancy scan. Most likely they are babies that were very much wanted but were either suffering from a, fatal or otherwise, foetal abnormality or that there is an indication that continuing with the pregnancy would negatively impact the health of the mother.

So, yeah, I'm not seeing how any good is being done here.

 

To be honest if you're having an abortion in the second trimester (12-28 weeks) there is something seriously wrong with you. Twelve weeks is three months and that is more than enough to make up your mind, after that the procedure is not a walk in the park. But if I remember correctly only less than a percent of all abortions are done after the 20th week, so this is not a significant loss.

 

It is a loss to the women who have discovered they are carrying babies with severe foetal abnormalities on their 20 week scan, as I posted above. The reason abortion guidelines (in Great Britain at least) stretch up to 24 weeks is so that women have access to termination if they choose to do so when their baby will be born severely disabled and perhaps not even survive birth, die shortly after birth, or where their own health is at risk.

 

These laws are literally and very commonly referred to as TRAP laws, or "Targeted Restriction of Abortion Procedures". They serve no purpose but to close down offices that do abortions. For example, they'll go in and measure a Planned Parenthood's hallway height or width and then say "You need to either spend tons on money to knock down your hallways and make them larger or close within three weeks". Another thing they will do is that abortions have to be done in rooms that have all the type of equipment a surgeon would have, which sounds nice, except when you realize an abortion is a very simple medical procedure so to speak. Another tactic is to force offices that do abortions to get admitting priveleges to a hospital, and they'll say "You have to get admitting priveleges to THIS certain Catholic Hospital" and they won't get the admitting priveleges. These laws only serve to shut down women's reproductive rights, and they should be knocked down in the same way the Supreme Court found in Roe v. Wade. Banning abortion doesn't get rid of abortions, it only gets rid of SAFE abortions. I've already heard stories of women in Texas because their local clinic is 5 hours away going to "back alley" type situations to get an abortion.

 

Quite so. Here in Ireland women have no access to abortion services unless they are legally and financially able to make the trip to the Great Britain. The poor, the young, and those who can't travel due to visa restrictions are the ones who suffer the most because of these restrictions. There is a website where you can order abortion pills to carry out the procedure in your own home, but the 8th amendment means the women who do this could end up in prison.

Travelling for an abortion is stressful and can be traumatic. It's also very expensive.

 

Is anybody really surprised by this? You have a party in the States that thinks bible thumpers are the best people to ask about contraception, abortion and women's health in general rather than healthcare professionals.

It's madness.