Vigilantes Empowered in Texas

 

 

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) 7-2  decision 1973 Roe vs. Wade:

“The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects against state action the right to privacy, and a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion falls within that right to privacy. A state law that broadly prohibits abortion without respect to the stage of pregnancy or other interests violates that right. Although the state has legitimate interests in protecting the health of pregnant women and the “potentiality of human life,” the relative weight of each of these interests varies over the course of pregnancy, and the law must account for this variability.

In the first trimester of pregnancy, the state may not regulate the abortion decision; only the pregnant woman and her attending physician can make that decision. In the second trimester, the state may impose regulations on abortion that are reasonably related to maternal health. In the third trimester, once the fetus reaches the point of “viability,” a state may regulate abortions or prohibit them entirely, so long as the laws contain exceptions for cases when abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother.”

(An all-male Supreme Court decided this case as there were no women justices at that time.)

As many of you know, I am a Registered Nurse. I have been one for almost 60 years, although I am now retired from active work. But I was a hospital-based nurse in Washington, DC, before the decision quoted above. I did not count how many patients I saw who were treated for botched, so-called back-alley abortions, but there were more than a few. Those were the days before easily obtained oral birth control medications. For many years, there were no easy options for legal abortions in the United States; although anyone who could afford to leave the country could receive care at Swiss clinics. In 1971, New York allowed legal abortions for pregnancies up to the gestational age of 24 weeks. A few other states also then allowed the procedure, but some made it allowable for state residents only. Five-Thirty-Eight wrote an analysis of the time and the difficulties when poor women had to find the money not only for the medical procedure but also for bus or plane tickets and lodging after they traveled to a distant site.

Sadly, I have not only seen women severely ill from infections after illegal abortions; I have also seen teenagers die. One I remember to this day was only 15 and had a generalized abdominal infection because the instrument used had perforated her uterus and bowel. Unfortunately, she died from the infection. The effects of the law just passed in Texas sets the stage for many more women to die this way. Most women do not know that they are pregnant at six weeks of gestation, so the law is difficult to obey. However, the net effect is that all legal abortion providers in Texas have shut down. Poor women in Texas with unwanted pregnancies, even those from rape or incest, can no longer end a pregnancy in a safe medical clinic in the Lone Star State. While medications can end pregnancies at certain stages, even those medications ordered from mail-order pharmacies will be off-limits under the restricted law (SB4). According to the Texas Tribune: Alexis McGill Johnson, president, and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America,….. said her organization would exhaust every avenue to fight the law from coming into effect. “The harm this law will cause will be insurmountable for far too many Texans, particularly Black, Latino, Indigenous people, those with low incomes, and Texans in rural areas who already face significant barriers to care,” Johnson said in a statement.

I am not pro-abortion but I am “pro-choice”. A woman needs to be able to make healthcare decisions affecting her body and her life. As a mother of two children who were wanted and loved, I understand how hard decisions to end a pregnancy must be. I personally could not have made that choice, but I understand my circumstances differ from many others. When I had children, I was educated, married, employed, and had access to medical care. Often, women have none of these options, already have a large family, or have no choice about becoming pregnant. Why should some nosy zealot be able to interfere in what has been declared a woman’s right to privacy? Why should these vigilantes be allowed to intrude on personal and difficult decisions?

According to CDC, the abortion rate in 2018 was 11.3 abortions per 1000 women aged 15-44. Nearly all abortions (91.5%) were performed at a level under 13 weeks of pregnancy. Although reporting is incomplete, in 2018 at least 50% of all abortions were medical abortions (meaning that pills were taken to end the pregnancy). Abortions for teenagers have decreased in numbers, so education may have helped limit pregnancies around those ages.

So, where do we go from here? Many abortion foes are counting on a positive decision by the Supreme Court regarding a Mississippi law that was planned to challenge Roe v Wade and outlawed abortions after 15 weeks-this has been followed by a six-week heartbeat law, also in Mississippi. Despite all Justices having said that Roe vs. Wade is settled law, the several justices appointed during the previous 4 years (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett) are all known as conservatives who have not decided on an issue of this magnitude, but who joined the older conservatives in not staying the Texas law. Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal faction in calling this law unconstitutional. Texas tried to get cute with this law and used a provision under civil law which allows citizens to report a crime. The justices may have deferred because no cases have yet occurred as the law just went into effect. The law not only allows but encourages citizens to report abortion providers, their staff, even the taxi driver who drives a woman to a clinic where it is suspected that she might receive an ultrasound and be declared pregnant and schedule further care. Although the pregnant woman cannot be fined, everyone in that clinic could be. In short, this puts women on the doorstep of their healthcare providers under the watchful eyes of vigilantes-who in Texas, no longer need a permit to open carry a weapon-who can harass them. In fact, one need not be a Texas resident to challenge this law as they extended the privilege to any US citizen. If prosecuted successfully in civil court, it carries a $10,000 bounty to the finder, with legal fees if they uphold the court challenge. The Wild Wild West rides again!

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COVID and the Delta variant are still with us. There are new reports about a new variant called MU which has already been found in several states and other countries. It follows the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Eta, Iota, and Lambda variants that preceded it. Each has gained a footing in countries where large numbers of people have not yet been vaccinated. That is why it is so important to increase worldwide vaccinations. The MU variant is currently being watched closely as some scientists from the World Health Organization are concerned that it may be more resistant to the vaccines than other variants. Currently, over 102, 734 patients are hospitalized across the country. Some numbers in the south are finally declining, but numbers in the Mid-Atlantic are increasing. The leader is South Carolina, which is only 44% vaccinated and is reporting a 50% increase in cases with 5.445 fresh cases. Tennessee and Kentucky round out the top three with the highest case counts. US cases are now topping 40 million.

Maryland, which is 62% vaccinated, is showing a 14% increase in recent cases. Maryland students are returning to school with a statewide mask mandate. Authorities expect that Hurricane Ida and the flooding and disruption it has caused from Louisiana to New England might also increase case numbers in future weeks.

COVID stats NY Times:

US totals: Total Cases: 40,004,444. New Cases: 161,210.

                  Total Deaths: 648,264.     New Deaths: 1,558.

Maryland Totals: Total Cases: (as of 9/3/21) 501,035. New Cases: 1387.

                               Total deaths: 10,051. New Deaths: 11.

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Many residents in the New Orleans area are still without power or water after the devastation from Ida. The storm severely affected the power grid as the strength of the winds, over 150 mph, toppled all the towers which carry transmission lines. Water cannot be pumped and they cannot distribute gasoline without power. Some areas remain underwater. FEMA is on-site, but it cannot be as effective when mobility is so constricted. The storm caused tornadoes up the East coast as it dumped torrents of rain and flooded streets, subways, and basement apartments. Meanwhile, the West continues to fight massive fires, one of which caused South Lake Tahoe to be evacuated. There are few words to ease the pain of any of those tragic survivors.

Climate change deniers must find it harder to make their case these days as extreme weather has caused turmoil from north to south and coast to coast.

The Labor Day Holiday is tomorrow-no room to say more at this time, except to applaud all of those city workers, union nurses, high wire linesmen, and FEMA employees who are working over this weekend to help keep all of us safe. Cheers!

“Til next week – Peace!