SC Planned Parenthood group alarmed as new Texas anti-abortion bill takes effect

This is not a test. Abortion has been banned in Texas.

After nearly 50 years of established law, the U.S. Supreme Court has torpedoed a person’s right to determine their own health care needs and make their own decisions about their body, a grim reality that many people born after 1973 have never had to confront before. Today may well be the start of a post-Roe world in this country, where a person’s right to bodily autonomy — to decide when, if, and how to become a parent — is no longer guaranteed.

The Texas legislature has banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. This is before most people even realize they’re pregnant and before some home tests can detect a pregnancy. Many Texans will be forced to travel out of state for the health care they need or carry pregnancies against their will. This law will fall especially hard on people of color, people experiencing financial hardship, and people in rural parts of the state.

If this sounds familiar to you, that is precisely because South Carolina Republican majorities in the State House passed a similar six-week abortion ban this past February. But within 24 hours of Gov. Henry McMaster signing that bill into law, a federal court blocked the abortion ban from going into effect. As a result, abortion remains safe and legal in South Carolina today.

The Texas law has a key difference that makes it especially egregious: it allows anyone — whether they live in Texas or not — to sue any individual who has helped someone obtain an abortion. That includes doctors, nurses, receptionists, security guards, volunteers, drivers, and family members. Perhaps you gave your sister a ride to an abortion clinic. Perhaps you gave a friend the money for an abortion. Perhaps you called and made an appointment for your daughter. You would all be subject to being sued for $10,000 just on someone else’s suspicions. This law doesn’t only allow these lawsuits, but it encourages anti-abortion extremists to act as bounty hunters in Texas with a substantial reward of $10,000 if they are successful. This novel approach to controlling women’s bodies should frighten us all.

Approximately one out of every four women in the U.S. will have an abortion in her lifetime, and it is one of the safest medical procedures performed. On the other hand, more women die during pregnancy and childbirth in the United States than in any other industrialized country. And South Carolina and Texas have among the top 10 highest rates of maternal mortality in the nation, particularly among Black women. Texas lawmakers — and now the Supreme Court — are forcing people to continue a pregnancy that may kill them.

Republicans waging war against COVID-19 vaccines and face masks use the “my body, my choice” refrain when it comes to themselves, but find it ironically acceptable to impose the will of politicians on women’s reproductive health and rights.

If lawmakers are serious about personal freedom and reducing the need for abortion, they should expand access to health care and education, provide birth control, and raise the minimum wage so people can afford to have children. They should look for ways to make South Carolina a better place in which to raise a family.

Everyone should be able to get the health care they need, when they need it, from a provider they trust. If you don’t want South Carolina to follow in Texas’ footsteps, now is the time to say so. Because anti-abortion lawmakers — and their bounty hunters — are coming for us next.

Vicki Ringer is Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic.

This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 2:30 PM with the headline "SC Planned Parenthood group alarmed as new Texas anti-abortion bill takes effect."