LeftOut

by Daryl Moore

THE SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES RULE

Gays, lesbians, and especially poor women will pay

The Texas Legislature just finished a session that is sure to make social conservatives blissful. From the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which precludes gays and lesbians from marrying and from having civil unions performed in other states recognized, to three major abortion bills and to a law requiring all Texas school children to observe a moment of silence and to pledge allegiance to the American and Texas flags each school day, alleged “morality” legislation carried the session in Austin.

Barely defeated was legislation precluding gays and lesbians from adopting children and from being foster parents. But as the sponsors of that legislation noted, “There’s always next session.”

Although gays and lesbians were targeted by the Legislature and DOMA passed, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Republicans got preoccupied with legislative redistricting. Fifty Democrats left the state, and antigay legislation was killed in the crossfire.

While legislators may have gotten distracted from antigay/lesbian legislation, they kept their eye on anti-abortion legislation generally, and poor women specifically.

Generally, abortion opponents got major anti-abortion legislation passed. Now women have to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion. And, under the new and misnamed “Woman’s Right to Know Act,” women have to undergo counseling before they can have an abortion, and they have to sign a written statement acknowledging they have been offered state-produced literature that explains risks and options for carrying the pregnancy to term as well as color photos of fetal development.

Let’s consider these two bills in turn:

First, take the 24-hour waiting period. What an insult. The bill requires women who want to have an abortion to wait 24 hours after they see an abortion provider before they can actually have the abortion. This bill presumes that women—whether they choose to have or not have an abortion—take the decision so lightly that they need to be placed in “time out” for 24 hours to make sure they’ve thought about it.

Does the Legislature really believe that women take abortion so lightly that they wake up, take a pregnancy test, and run down for an instant abortion? Does the Legislature really believe that pregnant women approach the decision of whether to have an abortion like they approach the decision of whether to buy a new pair of shoes or have a manicure? Of course they don’t.

The legislators know that women who have made the gut-wrenching decision to have an abortion don’t need another 24 hours “to think about it.” The whole purpose of the 24-hour waiting period isn’t to encourage more reasoned decisions. The purpose is to restrict access to abortion services—more specifically, poor women’s access to abortions.

Consider this: Texas has 254 counties. Only 15 of those 254 counties offer abortion services. Poor women who travel to one of those 15 counties to have an abortion will have to return the next day or find a place to stay during the mandated waiting period. In other words, poor women will be disproportionately affected by the new waiting period.

But that’s not all. A rider on one of the abortion bills cuts all state funding—including contraception and family-planning money—for clinics that provide abortion services. So, poor women who want to have an abortion will have to travel farther, wait longer, and pay more to have one. As a result, fewer poor women will be able to afford abortions. And that’s just what the Legislature wanted—to make abortion impossible to obtain if it can’t be made illegal.

With regard to the “The Woman’s Right to Know Act,” the Republicans deserve the George-Orwell Doublespeak Award for this bill, which mandates that physicians provide misinformation to patients. Specifically, in addition to requiring “counseling” and the showing of color pictures of developing fetuses to patients, the bill also requires that physicians tell patients that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer. And that would be fine if the link between abortion and breast cancer were real, but the National Cancer Institute has determined that no such link exists.

The Texas Legislature can’t outlaw abortion—at least not with the current U.S. Supreme Court in place. But it can make abortion more difficult to have, especially for low-income women. So it has.

So, the poor get screwed, and the wealthy get a pass. Poor women will have to struggle even more now to have an abortion, but the wealthy can see an abortion provider, check into a nice hotel, and return the next day. The Republican Party is in charge, and the poor are getting punished. What a surprise.

Maybe some of these unwanted babies of poor women will end up adopted by gays and lesbians. But then again, we better hurry if we want to adopt unwanted children. After all, “there’s always next session.” After that, it might be illegal for us to adopt.

Writing from the liberal end of the spectrum, Houston attorney Daryl Moore has a general practice and is board-certified in civil and appellate law.

If you have any comments about this article, please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.