Texas Abortion Ban: What to Know and How to Help
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Texas has enacted the nation's strictest abortion law after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a challenge brought by abortion providers.
The law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in May, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity--usually around six weeks and before most women know they’re pregnant.
Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) also empowers private citizens to sue those involved in helping a pregnant person access an abortion, placing a $10,000 bounty on anybody who “aids and abets” the procedure--including medical staff, family members, or even the person driving a patient to a clinic.
(Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, created a website where people can leave information anonymously about "aiding or abetting a post-heartbeat abortion.")
Now, millions of women in Texas have lost the right to choose, and access, safe abortion facilities. If you consider this law an attack on reproductive freedoms, here’s a list of organizations fighting for women’s rights in Texas:
Texas-specific Abortion Funds
- Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund helps low-income North, East, and West Texans seeking abortions. It also advocates for abortion access as a fundamental human right.
- Fund Texas Choice helps women access abortion clinics by funding a bus ticket, plane ticket, or gas money. It also helps with hotel expenses.
- The Lilith Fund, Texas' oldest abortion fund, provides direct financial assistance for Central and South Texans seeking abortions.
- Jane's Due Process helps Texas teenagers who want an abortion, but can't obtain parental permission for one, apply for a judicial bypass (a legal process in which a teenager asks permission from a judge, rather than a parent, to get an abortion). It also helps cover abortion costs for teenagers getting judicial bypass in Texas.
- Frontera Fund helps people in the Rio Grande Valley pay for abortions. It may also help cover the cost of an ultrasound (which is legally required by the state) and travel costs to an abortion provider.
- West Fund helps people in West Texas and Juarez, Mexico, pay for abortions, including in cases when they have to travel from Texas to abortion clinics in New Mexico or Colorado.
- Buckle Bunnies helps anyone in Texas get an abortion.
- Support Your Sistahs Fund, run through the Afiya Center, helps Black-identifying people pay for abortions.
- Bridge Collective helps Austin-area (within a 100-mile radius) people with childcare, in-home accommodations, and rides to abortion care.
- Clinic Access Support Network helps people living in Houston or traveling to Houston for an abortion. It can provide a bus ticket, gas money, childcare, and rides to people seeking an abortion.
- National Abortion Federation: This national pro-choice group supports abortion providers nationwide by giving them resources to keep staff and patients safe. It also supports patients via its toll-free, multi-lingual hotline for abortion referrals and financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada.
Advocacy Organizations Supporting Reproductive Freedom
These organizations are fighting to end anti-abortion policies and de-stigmatize abortion.
- Avow: Avow — formerly NARAL Pro-Choice Texas — is an independent, Texas-based organization that organizes Texas voters to campaign for an end to anti-abortion policies in the state. It also has a political action committee (PAC) through which it works to elect pro-abortion public officials.
- ACLU Texas, active since 1938, is a staunch advocate of abortion rights in the state.
- Whole Woman's Health Alliance's mission is to end abortion stigma. The organization also runs a three-clinic network that offers abortion resources in Texas, Virginia, and Indiana.
Issues to Watch
- Within the state, Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) - which would bar access to abortion-inducing pills to patients who are more than seven weeks pregnant - is approaching final approval by the state legislature. Currently, these pills are available to patients until the tenth week of pregnancy.
- Mississippi is asking the Supreme Court to consider overruling Roe v. Wade in a case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. The Supreme Court will hear arguments this fall. Depending on the Court's decision, precedent surrounding abortions could be altered.
—Lorelei Yang
(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / vichinterlang)
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So-o-o, Greg Abbot is going to eliminate all rape?!.......If a woman gets raped, more often than not, it's by someone she knows (even her husband, though I have heard some contest that by saying it is impossible for a man to rape his wife!...apparently, we are chattel ) ......more often than not, a woman does not even get a pregnancy test until she misses here second period which totally blows the whole six week window of opportunity. This is bringing us back to the middle ages...or even earlier than that....after all, the "wedding ring" in ancient Rome signified that you were property of so-and-so....it was a brand.
You know how to stop rape? Any man who rapes a female should have their dick cut off! It's that simple. I have no mercy for any monsters. Forcing a female to carry an unwanted pregnancy is against her rights. This is stone age BS! Texas is acting like the Taliban when it comes to women and voting rights. Hell what's next!?! Bring back slavery!?!?!
So why did the UN wait to speak up until now? Why? This was brewing to become their law and nobody said a peep...why? Texas isn't an American State anymore. They do not abide by their oath to protect the people and the Constitution. Women are people! Stop acting like the Taliban!!! A woman brought you into this world. Are you looking for women to take you out of your cushy seat of ego? May I remind that this is 2021? You are playing with fire! The old saying of a woman belongs in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant is long dead. Stop trying to bring it back! Payback's a bitch!
I am surprised that the mainstream media has been slow to pick this up. (I'm re-learning to take it slow with early reporting, so take this with a bit of skepticism.) "Texas judge blocks private group from invoking new anti-abortion law." - UPI.com https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/09/04/Texas-judge-blocks-private-group-invoking-anti-abortion-law/6711630757618/ Thanks (again) to @Leslie for picking up the story in "The Hill" first. It occurred to me that the $10k bounty may not be enough. One has to sue. So, it could turn out to cost money out of pocket. $10K - $16k in investigative and legal expenses not to mention possible payoffs to witnesses, etc ≈ $6k out of pocket. Those good anti-abortion folks lining up to tattle & collect may be as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine, but are they willing to pay the piper as to collect a likely elusive bounty? (The same would apply to anti-abortion groups just on a larger scale.) Lawyers & Lawmakers bless their souls.
Pro-life abortion reporting system dropped by website host GoDaddy.com https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2021/09/03/pro-life-abortion-reporting-system-dropped-by-website-host-godaddycom/ I bet there will be other hosts willing to pick up TattleTale.Texas.gov but will any host put its other business at risk? Switching hosts can be fairly trivial depending on deals, backup copies, skill of developers, etc. Will another web hosting service risk disruption from potential attacks both straightforward fakes and by pissed off hackers?
If Texas has enough money to hand out to these bounty hunters, they have enough to provide universal healthcare, prenatal care, affordable access to birth control as in all the services that greatly reduce the need for abortions. Idiots!
Abortion should be legal, safe, and easily accessible for all in the US
& men who are 100% responsible for ALL unwanted pregnancies walk away without consequence, again!!! Praise be.
I have several thoughts about The Texas abortion band… These centers also provide needed assistance for couples who want to have children and can’t. It is a very bad thing to take this option away from would be parents. There are many health reasons couples turn to these procedures; and I would add it is both Male and female partners that may be the cause of why these couples cannot conceive on their own. This Texas law could misconstrue the intent of these folks as well as abortion seekers. I have not heard how these states, that would women to carry and birth children of rape and incest, intend on assisting these women monetarily and mentally with these children. There are many reason that women seek abortion and they have been gravely overlooked in this ban. There is something seriously wrong with Governor Abbott and the people of Texas need to Vote Him Out!
I think if I was paying taxes in Texas I would be concerned about the source for the reward money. 10,000.00 could help rebuild roads, repair damaged infrastructure after storms, modernize schools, aid the poor and homeless, and be used in multiple more beneficial ways than to pay a single citizen for reporting their neighbor’s private matters. I predict multiple misuses in which one party splits rewards with those they turned in for unwanted activities. Basically, this is NOT A LAW, it is paying citizens for infringing on another’s constitutional rights, and dear Missouri, don’t even think about this.
“UN experts condemn Texas abortion law as sex discrimination ‘at its worst’” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/07/un-experts-condemn-texas-anti-abortion-law? “Exclusive: human rights lawyer criticizes the supreme court and says new law will ‘make abortion unsafe and deadly’” Ed Pilkington in New York Published: 02:00 Tuesday, 07 September 2021
It seems that the Supreme Court is not upholding our constitution. I say we start impeachment proceedings. If the Supreme Court will allow vigilantism in place of laws that govern our country, they have no place in enforcing the laws.
JimK is such a good communist... Saving babies lives is a very right thing to do. All that has to be said.
From the local CBS affiliate in Houston, KHOU TV, that had this sort of interesting story. I guess it's going to take ALL HANDS ON DECK on SB8. .... "The Satanic Temple challenges new Texas abortion law citing religious freedom" .... https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/satanic-temple-challenges-texas-abortion-law/285-edf8b1f8-8605-4e6d-9331-afeefe1e5352 ... They seem to have a couple of beliefs that I support fully! From the story ... "One of the seven beliefs on the Satanic Temple’s website reads, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. Another says, “Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.” I not planning on joining said group, but more power to them if they can help! Mailboxes getting fuller my Reps??
Step back for a moment and look at the Texas anti-abortion legislation in a broader context and a higher level perspective. I have, and it appears to me that there is more to the story which should scare the crap out of most of us. … … … First consider the Federalist Society which has a main focus on propagating conservative values through a variety of legal but fairly unscrupulous means. Their donors, through a mob-like money laundering shell company structure, prep conservative justices by funding others to get their conservative cause cases in front of their selected judges. They also underwrite and push issues through lower courts that they want to see presented to the Supreme Court. They pay Republican State AG’s to present the ‘right’ cases and to write amicus briefs to the courts, including the Supreme Court. … … … The Federalist Society picked almost all of the Federal Judges nominated by the trump and confirmed with a filibuster proofed process, despite many being rated as being unqualified or biased by the ABA. They were instrumental in developing the credentials of and the nomination of all of the recent conservative Supreme Court confirmations (also placed by a filibuster-proofed expedited process because the Republican Faction just could). Most if not all of the conservative Supreme Court Justices and much of the Republican Faction’s Senatorial leadership are card-carrying members of the Federalist Society. … … … It has long been a conservative goal to overturn Roe v Wade, and the Federalist Society has allegedly been very involved in supporting Republican State legislatures court filings for conservative issues and getting them expedited to the Supreme Court. I do not know the extent or their involvement in helping develop the Texas Taliban’s trickery nor the Mississippi anti-abortion law which was developed for the express purpose to challenge Roe v Wade in the Supreme Court. … … … If Roe v Wade were just overturned by the Supreme Court when the Mississippi case is argued later this year or early next year, there would be a huge and well deserved outcry. I see the Texas Taliban law as a way to temper expectations before the Federalist Society’s hand-picked Supreme Court judges rule to overturn Roe v Wade. The outcry for that determination would be tempered by the prior outcry in response to the Texas laws and the public’s even greater entrenched positions. … … … I think that is the sole reason for and and purpose of the Texas Taliban’s passage of a grossly unconstitutional law and the Supreme Court’s refusal to stop it without a hearing. … … … The entitled elite do not feel that the people are capable of self-governance and that they need to control the processes of governance to protect their status. Their pompous deceit and arrogance far exceed their abilities to prepare our country for the future. Their disrespect for normal people who they think will not notice the things that they are doing should spell their downfall. … … … We have a lot of work to do to change the balance of the courts and especially the legislature to bring us back to a democracy where the people’s vote determines how we are governed and the will of the majority cannot be simply dismissed by the will of an entitled minority by political tricks or judicial activism.
Protecting women health care workers and clinics under attack using the FACE act is great but Women's Health, Choice & Privacy must be well protected and defended. We must not allow any citizen at level of government to be subjected to "moral judgement" based on religious belief no matter what convoluted laws to do so are devised. I ask again, evidently in vain, why can’t those who are opposed to women’s choice simply practice their belief and not impose it on others. Hopefully, many good skilled and knowledgeable people are working on this. See also "AP News: Justice Department will 'protect' abortion seekers in Texas" WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday that it will not tolerate violence against anyone who is trying to ob... Read the full story https://apnews.com/article/738cfb097227037ac0ce33ccb79c2e4f @Leslie wrote: "UPDATE: DOJ will protect abortion clinics….” "We will not tolerate violence against those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services, physical obstruction or property damage in violation of the FACE Act." The FACE Act prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures or interferes with a person who is seeking to obtain or provide reproductive services, according to the DOJ release. The act, signed into law in 1994, also prohibits damage to a health facility that provides reproductive health services.” https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/570979-doj-says-it-will-protect-women-seeking-abortions-in-texas" https://www.causes.com/comments/1496120
@Freethinker-How many of the millions of Foster children have to certified for to take into your home? These children are already born, the GOP has cut funding for them, cut medical for them-and you are sitting there and whine about unborn children? What a freakin' hypocrite you are! I can tell YOU are a right winger! Shame! Shame! Shame!
If you want to know my opinion, read jimK. He nails every single point I would make, and does so fully and succinctly! The fact that ALL of the SCOTUS conservative majority have some direct association with the Federalist Society is a travesty!
Jim K, when will you understand that this nation is a Republic founded on Judeo-Christian principles? The Constitution limits the Federal government to 18 areas of jurisdiction. Abortion, elections, healthcare, environment, jobs, etc. are all areas that belong to State jurisdiction! Each state legislature can make their own law concerning abortion! We elect representatives to make our laws not Judges. That’s judicial tyranny which the Left loves because it knows most citizens are right of center and don’t want to be ruled by unelected bureaucrats or judges!
Anne, there are many ProLife organizations around the country that have couples waiting to adopt a baby. Get you head out of the sand. FIRSTCAREFORLIFE.Com is one of them. They also support women in crisis pregnancies! We put our money behind what we say.