SJAmerican Government In 1973, the landmark ruling for women’s rights in U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a woman’s right to an abortion. Ever since, individual states have adopted and changed the ruling to fit their agendas, especially Texas. However, the decision in Roe v. Wade didn’t set clear cut rules, which has allowed debate to consume the nation ever since. Rather than establishing a legal ruling of what life is, or is not, the Supreme Court has remained silent on the issue. Without the agreement determining when life begins, the court has allowed state legislators the authority to shape a state’s policy on abortion. Meaning, across the nation, all states can bring legislation and input severe limitations on when and how a pregnancy may be terminated. Since then, in recent years state lawmakers have passed some of the toughest anti-abortion measures in the country, essentially making the procedure almost inaccessible for many Texas women.
2013 marked the closure of many reproductive centers across Texas and resulted in the topic of accessible abortions being a heated discussion for many state citizens. Within that year, a new state law has brought on many abortion restrictions resulting in lowering women’s reproductive rights due to decreasing access to abortion care (Al-Arian). The House bill, HB2, set forth provisions that would result in the closure of most abortion clinics in the state of Texas. State legislature, both passed HB, 3994 as a law after receiving Governor Abbott signature. This law complicated access to abortion services for many minors and for those who do not possess a Texas identification card. In HB 3994, it had four requirements of the bill that would explicitly hinder minors. The first provision, the bill will make it harder for a minor to demonstrate that she needs a judge to approve her for an abortion because the level of evidence that the minor must acquire is much more encompassing. Secondly, it revises the requirement that a judge’s rule must be made immediately, expanding the decision time from two days to five which prolongs the process (planned parenthood). The third provision withdrawals the requirement that in the case the judge cannot make an immediate rule, then the minor’s case was automatically granted. This third provision along with the extension of the ruling time, could lead to a number of rules not being made and to the possibility of the minor’s application being denied. Fourthly, the new bill brings limits on who can have their appeals heard. With both Republican representative in the State Senate and the State House, this bill has become increasingly hard to overturn resulting in women being denied access to center in over a 100 miles radius. This included the Texas abortion provider, Whole Woman's Health, which ran a clinic in Beaumont until 2014. This center was the only place to get an abortion between Houston, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Racheal Jones and Jenna Jerman, author of “Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health” recorded that “In 2014, some 96% of Texas counties had no clinics that provided abortions, and 43% of Texas women lived in those counties”. This number shows a 29% decline compared to the numbers of clinics available in 2012. Additionally, in 2017, Texas lawmakers have filed at least 17 “religious refusal” bills that would permit discrimination against LGBT in many factors in their life such as healthcare, welfare services, and employment. In healthcare, Senate bill 17 allows “health care providers to use their religious beliefs as reason to deny any medical treatment to LGBT people and others included within that community” (Guttmacher Institute). Providers are also able to deny family planning services such as birth control, counseling, miscarriage management and abortion care to patients because of their sexuality and gender identification. This is an issue on many different citizen’s minds, especially those who live in the state of Texas. The new laws are forcing many women to have to cross state lines in order to receive an abortion and medical care. This includes woman who needs abortions due to preexisting medical conditions and those who are carrying fetuses which are diseased and are expected not to be born as healthy babies (Planned Parenthood). The Texas Governor Rick Perry and Senator Ted Cruz are leading the fight for the abortion laws to become permanent, laws that are considered the strictest abortion laws that this country has ever seen. Overall, this debate has divided many Texas citizens into two categories, prolife and prochoice. Pro-life supports the idea that every child has a right to live. Meanwhile, prochoice believes in the right to privacy and the idea women should have the choice to do what she pleases with her own body. With a strong pro-life presence in the Texas state government, it will remain difficult for the overturn of these policies and the reopening of many abortion clinics within the state.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
Categories
All
|