Federal Court Gives Green Light to Extreme Anti-Abortion Law in Texas
This Must Be Opposed Right Now!

October 6, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From readers:

On October 2, a three-judge panel of a U.S. appeals court threw out another judge's ruling that had blocked the State of Texas from enforcing an unjust and immoral anti-abortion law. As an immediate result, 13 abortion clinics in Texas were forced to stop providing abortions. The 5.5 million women in Texas of reproductive age now have only eight clinics left performing abortions—all in Houston, Austin, and two other metropolitan regions. No clinics will be providing abortions west or south of San Antonio.

Emergency demonstrations were held in four cities against the October 2 appeals court ruling that forced 13 clinics to stop providing abortions. Here, Berkeley California demonstration. Photo: special to revcom.us.

This means even greater numbers of women in vast areas of Texas will be forced to bear children against their will—leading to destroyed lives, shattering of plans and dreams, and enforcement of a status of incubators on human beings. Others will die from attempts at illegal abortions. And a horrible precedent has been set—the right to abortion nationwide hangs by an even slimmer thread. The implications are stunning and horrific—and MUST BE OPPOSED RIGHT NOW!

The basis of the federal court's ruling was obscene. The judges decided that their ruling—which will affect huge areas of Texas—does not deprive a "large fraction" of women of their constitutional right to abortion. They said they based this reasoning on the data provided by an "expert" for the State of Texas who claimed that one out of six Texas women seeking an abortion lives more than 150 miles from the nearest clinic. The court basically ruled that these people don't count. But these women are human beings who, in many, many cases, are now prevented from having access to an abortion. This is like saying slavery wasn't so bad because only one-sixth of all people were enslaved. And the one-sixth is understated.

Who do you think these "non-people"—in the eyes of the court—are? Some are desperately poor immigrant women in South Texas who might have been raped on the perilous journey to the U.S. Some are young women in abusive or incestuous situations forced, on top of everything else, to bear a child against their will. Some are poor women who can't afford the expense of a long trip for what should be a routine medical procedure. Some are women who will attempt to self-abort, with horrible consequences. This is not tolerable!

Take note that one of the judges in the appeals court panel, who concurred with at least part of this reactionary ruling, was appointed by Barack Obama. This is a tragic and terrible example of the vicious harm posed by relying on the Democratic Party in any way, shape, or form.

The court's ruling is a shameful violation of rights supposedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court's earlier rulings on abortion—and of supposed constitutional guarantees of equal protection for everyone. It must be reversed!

StopPatriarchy immediately called for protests after the ruling, and there were defiant actions in response to the call in New York City, Seattle, and Berkeley as well as a protest in Austin that revolutionaries joined. And these latest developments underscore the importance of the plans for the January anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, to be marked by major protests raising the just demand: Abortion on Demand and Without Apology!

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

Send us your comments.

If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.