Texas Abortion Law
What does the Texas abortion law really mean and where does that leave us?
By: Srihita Raju
Texas has all but buried Roe v. Wade. The state’s new abortion law allows any woman to get sued for at least (that’s right, at least) $10,000 if she has an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is roughly (but not always) when the first heartbeat appears. And not only that, but anyone who aids a woman in getting an abortion can be fined a minimum of $10,000. That includes doctors, clinic employees, whoever is helping to pay for the abortion, and whoever drives a woman to her appointment. This law essentially allows citizens to act as bounty hunters, able to sue and profit off of women’s bodies and trauma.
For years, women who have shared their distress over restrictive abortion laws by making comparisons to “The Handmaid’s Tale” have been mocked and ridiculed so much that people stopped listening. Women who have pushed for more accessible birth control or better sex education curriculums in schools have been accused of promoting an overly sexual culture and called vile names. One of the most frustrating parts of this horrifying reality is that this is what feminists and pro-choice activists have been warning of. Restrictive abortion laws in states like Texas have been inching closer and closer to the present, in which a woman can be raped, then sued by her rapist for attempting to terminate her unwanted and forced pregnancy. Women who can’t afford to have a child and decide the best option is to abort can be sued and put into an even worse financial situation. Strangers and their lawyers can profit off a woman they have never met, whose situation they have no idea of, and who they’ll likely never see again, by suing her for making a choice about her body and her life. It feels ridiculous and cliche to say, but an individual’s body is their own to govern, and they should not be forced into actions they don’t want to take. And if they try to take that power back by doing what is best for them, they will face debilitating financial consequences. Laws that force someone to carry out a pregnancy by threatening them with financial suffering are nothing but cruel. This sets a precedent for how women’s bodies are viewed in the courtroom and beyond. A precedent that an individual’s body is not their own. A precedent that’ll make it easier for other states to follow in Texas’ footsteps.
When I was little and I’d hear about rallies over abortion laws, it felt so far away. Now being in college, I can’t ignore how important of an option abortion is. It is difficult for me to think about, but I’m grateful that if anyone I know got pregnant by accident or against their will, they’d have access to a safe abortion. Sexual assault on campus is something that women in college think about every time they’re on campus. If the worst happened, it’s horrifying to know that in Texas, a woman would not have options outside of getting sued, having an unsafe and possibly deadly self-administered abortion, or going through with a pregnancy she doesn’t want that could potentially derail her life.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that if you or someone you know is being immediately impacted by restrictive abortion laws, know that this isn’t the end. It can be easy for the rest of us to feel some distance between ourselves and Texas’ new law and to think of it in the hypotheticals I mentioned above—the ones plastered all over social media and the news. But there are people who are living these hypotheticals, and to them, they are anything but distant.
It can be hard to keep fighting for something as obvious as basic rights to our bodies, but for those of us who are lucky enough to be able to, we have to keep trying. Because it is awful right now, but it could get so much worse.