A federal appeals court reinstated Texas’ controversial six-week abortion ban on Friday night, days after a lower court suspended the Republican-backed law.
www.foxnews.com
It's going to be the midterms so get used to hearing it
Sadly, not surprising. The courts are busted, too. For all the conservative whining about judges ruling from the bench, the 5th Circuit absolutely does just that, except it's on the right-wing side, so the right-wing partisan hacks don't complain. Hypocrites. The willingness to toss judicial precedent out the window and ignore the fact that a) this isn't a damn theocracy and b) you should (in theory) bring scientific, provable, areligious evidence into court basically flushes every principle this country was founded down the toilet.
This stupid law hurts *anyone* with a uterus, regardless of their beliefs. It tells us we're not valid. We're not fully human in the eyes of this state's trash government, and not fully capable of making our own damn decisions regarding our bodies, which in some cases involve life-or-death issues I never, ever want to be faced with. The government has no right to butt into what should be a private decision between a person and their doctor.
If you believe it's wrong, convince people of that. Evangelize your religion as much as you want—you're free to do so under the First Amendment—but you cannot legislate your religion in such a way that it forces adherence to it upon everyone else here, especially in a way that will, without a doubt, kill pregnant folks in tough situations. Are you super-conservatively religious? Well, it's between you and your own principles to decide what to do in a tough pregnancy. The state should not intervene.
I'm fortunate enough to be able to get out if the absolute worst-case scenario happens and I need to access such services, but my gosh, so many people aren't in this state. This will kill people. This stupid bounty-hunter-based legislation flies in the face of the rule of law and screw it, I'm done. If Texas' precedent is allowed to stand with this, it's a free-for-all. It's dangerous. It could be the absolute breakdown when it comes to law, order and rights in this stupid, busted country. Any other state could say "screw it, let the people sue each other and we'll reward them if they're successful" to anything their state government doesn't like that day, and precedent could allow it to stand. This is absurd.
If there is no respect for the right to basic bodily autonomy, and no respect for **anyone** born with a uterus (good grief, don't get me started on the pointless picking on trans kids when THEY SHOULD BE FIXING THE STUPID ELECTRICAL GRID SO PEOPLE DON'T FREEZE TO DEATH NEXT TIME, either), then why live here? Honest question. People made this valid economic point—that far-right legislation will thwart the ability of businesses to hire the best possible employees and thwart other major companies or events from doing business here—to deaf ears in the hearing about trans kids being able to participate in sports, and of course, the state lege ignored the overwhelming opposition to ram it through.
The state government doesn't even care what we think. They don't care about Texans who aren't like them, and especially don't care about anyone's right to determine what to do with themselves, with their own bodies, with their own families or any of it. The pandemic made that especially clear. They don't care if we die, if we kill ourselves, if we get sick, if we suffer, if we lose our families or friends, or if we simply move the hell out to somewhere run by actual freaking adults. They don't care about businesses here, they don't care about major events, and they don't care about the continued ability of this state to thrive. All they seem to care about is power and maintaining it for themselves, full stop.
I don't have any faith in our country's ability to turn this around, even though I'd like to be pleasantly surprised. The proposed Texas district maps take gerrymandering out anyone who might skew even
centrist on an international scale even further. There's a proposed district in the Austin area that puts the original "Gerrymander" cartoon lizard district to shame. Our area isn't allowed its own representation. They flat-out hate us because most of the city doesn't vote like they want us to, which is stupid. We're Texans, too, allegedly.
Will the national government do anything about it? Nope! They've thrown us to the wolves with the abortion rules, they've neutered the civil rights legislation that would have prevented the obvious redistricting along racial lines that's going on in some districts, and consequently, I've lost all faith in even the national government to keep this state's stupidity in check. What laws? What precedent? The entire system and the basic rule of law keeps getting flushed down the toilet.
I know
@DanRoM has noted this based on previous rants, but at this point, I just want out. If this abortion thing goes to the Supreme Court, it's probably done. They have so many partisan hacks who also don't care about precedent or science that the whole right to determine what happens to your own damn body is toast. Again—to be clear—this is never a situation I plan to be in or expect to be in, but also, there are no exceptions for rape, the 6-week period is before most people know they're even pregnant, there are already rumblings about restricting access to morning-after pills and at the very core of this, this is a government overreach and I simply want the basic respect that I know what I'm doing with myself—my own body—is fine, period, end of conversation because no one but me and a trustworthy medical professional should be in on that.
Congress can't and won't do diddly squat to say, hey, you should have the basic right to do what you need as a person. I mean, we're to the point where we're concerned that they'll let the entire economy fall apart based on partisan lines. Do you really expect them to DO anything at all? No—I have zero faith left here, and I don't have any faith that people will replace the folks who hum-haw or reject the idea that women know best on matters that affect them, either.
There's part of me that wants to stay and fight for things to be better, but I'm exhausted just like a bunch of others fleeing or avoiding this stupid state. Do the gerrymandered majority of districts want to flush this state down the terlet? Well, don't drag me down with it. There's a point where the so-called "values" of this broken place don't match up with mine in the slightest in even a tolerable way, and other places have the most basic things like healthcare *that doesn't bankrupt you if you have health issues* already figured out. Hell, I'm playing catchup on a lot of health appointments after a couple years of unemployment sans-decent-insurance and it's a serious financial burden. That shouldn't be a thing! Actual first-world countries have this figured out already. Hell, even we figured out how to extend the COVID vax to everyone free of charge. Why isn't everything at least manageable? My family shouldn't have struggled when I was a kid after Dad had a quad-bypass, either. This whole idea that you have no basic right to be healthy or functional in a country where the means to keep you well exists is trash, especially when things happen like the healthiest, runs-every-day friend I knew suddenly passed away from a previously unknown health issue. We allegedly have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, right? Let's treat it like that, or I'm out.
(Wow, that turned into a rant. Either way,
there's a Gwar song about this.)