Texas Abortion Ban
On Wednesday,September 1st, a law in Texas went into effect dictating that abortions after six weeks of pregnancy were banned. This directly clashes with the monumental Supreme Court case ruling in Roe v. Wade that established abortion as a constitutional right. The law effectively prohibits most abortions, as women are not usually aware of pregnancy until after they miss their menstrual period. Consequently, this results in a woman being roughly four weeks pregnant by the time a pregnancy is discovered. According to the new law, once cardiac activity is detected, abortion is not a legal possibility. Women are given about two weeks to confirm a pregnancy with a test, decide whether to get an abortion or not, and get the actual abortion. Dr. Jennifer Villavicencio, a doctor at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, states, ‘’It is extremely possible and very common for people to get to the six-week mark and not even know if they are pregnant.’’ She then goes on to state, ‘’Forcing them to find out about pregnancy and make a decision about how to manage it in a short period is antithetical to ethical care.’’ Furthermore, the law does not make an exception for instances of incest, rape, or poor health of the mother.
Texas Right to Life, the owners of prolifewhistleblower.com, have made a website where people can report suspected abortions. Those that do report may be entitled to a minimum of $10,000 if they win the court case against those that they reported. As of Friday, 3 September, GoDaddy, a website hosting service, stated it will terminate the site for violating its terms of service and that the site will have to use a different provider. Texas Right to Life has made plans to transfer its website to another provider. The said website is to be up in a couple of days.
In a surprising turn of events, religion may be the saving grace for abortions in Texas. The Satanic Temple, a non-theistic religious organization based out of Massachusetts, has filed a grievance with the FDA asserting its members should have access to abortion pills. As a religious organization, it can claim abortion as a faith-based right.