New Abortion Law, Attack On Women’s Rights?

Does the supreme court care more about partisan appeasement than actually upholding the constitution? Ever since the new legislation came out of Texas, it seems like it has. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past couple of months and have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m talking about how Texas had come out with this extremely draconian anti-abortion bill that outlaws abortions six weeks past the patient’s last menstrual cycle. You know, the bill that blatantly goes against women’s reproductive rights.

Now how can this be when abortion is a constitutionally protected right? Well, the law doesn’t target people who have gotten abortions directly, and that would be a little too obvious if it did. The law truly focuses on people who assist in an abortion, whether it be the doctor who performed it, relatives or friends who might have paid for it, or the Uber driver who took the person to the clinic. 

In surprising news, Uber and Lyft have announced that they will pay legal fees for any drivers who might get sued due to this law. However, this does seem like some performative PR stunt from the companies since they have a history of not giving the drivers any benefits and preventing them from sexually assaulting passengers. 

The law doesn’t mean either that cops can go in and arrest any abortion doctors, and that would also be blatantly unconstitutional. Texas lawmakers just needed to be winkingly unconstitutional, so their conservative buddies up in the Supreme Court can pretend that it isn’t.  The law doesn’t grant the government or any state official to enforce it. The law puts the onus of enforcement on the average American citizen, inspiring them to enforce this law with spurious lawsuits.

But as you might remember, abortion is a constitutional right that the Supreme Court should protect due to the Roe V. Wade precedent. So to avoid getting challenged as unconstitutional. This law deputizes the average Texas citizen to enforce the abortion ban by giving them a “carte blanche” to sue anyone that might get or assist in an abortion.

The fact that no state official can enforce the law doesn’t matter because it extends its sweeping powers to any person that’s not a state official. That means total strangers who have not been harmed themselves can sue anyone who might dare to perform or get an abortion regardless of whether they have any connection to the person they might be suing. It is clear to see the negative implications that might come of this highly sexist bill. Any updates will come from yours truly.