Beware the Texas abortion law

The Texas state trigger law gives all Texas state citizens the power to bring a civil lawsuit against any person who offers guidance, medical care, or even a car ride to get an abortion.  This means if a person is standing in line at the grocery store and they overhear someone talking to a friend about possibly getting an abortion, that person could sue the friend for a minimum of $10,000. Medical care providers will not be able to afford to counsel or provide services to women for fear of being bankrupt or losing their medical practice.

The danger in this law is that when a woman is in crisis and trying to make a difficult decision about what to do, she will be putting anyone she seeks advice from at risk of being sued. This could include a doctor, therapist, friend, cab driver, or even their pastor. This law does not even show lenience towards rape victims, adult or child.

The unfairness goes even further when you realize this law singles out low-income families who cannot afford to travel outside of the state to obtain an abortion. This issue will obviously not apply to the families and people in the same economic bracket as the politicians making these laws.

A woman who cannot afford to travel to a surrounding state that does not have the same abortion law as Texas will have no other choice but to either carry the pregnancy to term or attempt some unethical, dangerous, or black-market abortion. These kinds of procedures were not uncommon in the past when a woman was faced with carrying an unwanted or unexpected pregnancy to term.

The idea of the government having the power to decide whether a woman with a major medical condition, such as cancer or another life-threatening disease, should be allowed to terminate a pregnancy is ridiculous. A child who was raped by a stranger or by a family member should not be forced to bring the product of that rape into the world. The mental ramifications of this alone are more than an adult can process, let alone a traumatized child.

Those of you who don’t live in the state of Texas might be wondering why you should care about this law. The simple reason is that this law is already being mimicked by other states. It won’t be long before it touches the lives of you or someone you care about.

Texas has crossed a line by thinking they have the right to make these kinds of decisions for a person. The law in and of itself is bad enough. Turning this into a civil issue where anyone on the street can claim they heard someone planning an abortion makes it even more horrible. This is the very definition of giving them an inch and they will take a mile. This is just the beginning of the state of Texas moving women’s health rights back into the dark ages. United States citizens should speak out against this law.

Kristi Moore is a South Haven High School graduate and the family engagement interventionist at Winfield Early Learning Center. She wrote this essay and submitted it to the CourierTraveler as part of her master's degree in social work through Fort Hays State University.