Welcome to Texas, Where Women Have Less Bodily Autonomy Than Corpses

For the last few weeks, a battle has been raging in Texas over proposed abortion legislation. I was at the Capitol yesterday to protest the passage of this legislation--I have never been a political activist (well, not since I was eleven years old, but that's another story), but this showdown over choice and access versus control and subjugation has left me outraged and frustrated. I am pro-family, pro-life, and pro-choice. I have two wonderful children who I chose to conceive and bring to term. I believe every woman should have the same choice.


So I exercised my right to free speech and peaceful protest. I completed a position card to officially record my opposition to the bill, then I settled in to watch the testimony that occurred in front of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee. Earlier in the day, as I waited in line to register my stance on the bill, this woman next to me let me take a photo of her awesome hair:

No more wire hanger abortions in Texas. Ever.

It was an emotionally exhausting day, and full of triggery images and rhetoric that took me right back to my years within the far-right Christian fundamentalist patriarchy. One man, who described himself as "just a country boy," spoke about how on a ranch, livestock are expected to reproduce in order to increase a herd, and those livestock that do not reproduce are "exterminated." He compared women to livestock, and shared his opinion that women should be expected to reproduce, because that is the sum of their value. It was shocking, yet the committee chairwoman thanked him warmly for his testimony. Another man testified that he had fallen into addiction and a life of depravity, then blamed his failures on his decisions to force his mistresses to obtain abortions. Yeah, um, okay, so you're a loser, and it's totally abortion's fault, so let's revoke all abortion rights.

Other people, mostly women, testified against the bill, with heart-breaking stories of rape, incest, corrective rape, domestic violence, fetuses with abnormalities that would have resulted in a life full of pain and horror. One woman (my hero!) was dragged out of the committee hearing by Texas State Troopers in the middle of her testimony for calling out senators by name.

Another witness spoke about how we assign and perceive bodily autonomy. How even corpses cannot be forced to donate organs, even if doing so would save twenty lives. Yet Texas--and many other states across the nation lately--are trying to force women to donate the use of their uterus for the development of a potential human life. This is the most troubling argument I have heard: that women are no more than incubators, and therefore serve at the pleasure of the state.

Simply put, if these bills are passed--and that seems likely, despite being denounced by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Texas Medical Association--they would effectively end access to safe and legal abortion in Texas. The collateral damage would the the loss of affordable health care for men and women including cancer screenings, STD testing, contraceptives, pregnancy testing, and prenatal health care. These services, along with abortion, are provided at the forty-two women's health clinics in the state, many if not all of which would likely cease to exist after these bills go into effect.

Bill proponents argue that they are trying to increase safety for women seeking abortions, but the draconian measures, such as requiring abortion clinics to become ambulatory surgical centers and requiring physicians who perform abortions to gain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, will be financially and practically untenable for these clinics. There is no provision in the proposed legislation that would fund the mandated clinics upgrades, nor any requirement for hospitals to grant admitting privileges; realistically, many hospitals will be wary of granting privileges for abortion providers due to religious affiliations or the fear of political repercussions.

Women's health clinics have already suffered massive financial damage in recent years and many have already been forced to close, thanks to Governor Perry's refusal to allow state and federal funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. This legislation would be devastating for the many un- and under-insured Texans who rely upon affordable and accessible healthcare. They may instead decide to travel across the border into Mexico to obtain an abortion, or to attempt to self-abort. They will go without regular healthcare screenings and exams. Or if they are fortunate to have financial and family resources and support, they may be able to take several days away from work and children to travel hundreds of miles in order to obtain necessary medical care.

Okay. But all of this has been argued until we are blue in the face, and it is falling on largely deaf ears in the Texas legislature. They are self-righteous and smug in their moral superiority and their perceived responsibility to protect women from themselves. I believed that I had succeeded in escaping the church, yet it feels now as if the church is integrating itself into our legal system. How do we escape a theocracy?