In the “stupid AND evil Republican idea” category, we have Texas’s latest crack at banning abortion: enforcement by lawsuit by any random person. NY Times article.Texas Tribune article.
This statutory shit show has two key aspects. The first is par for the antediluvian course: abortion is banned after a doctor detects a fetal heartbeat, usually at about six weeks of pregnancy. The second is the “innovation”: the law is enforceable by civil action, and any person anywhere, including a non-Texan, can sue anyone who violates the law for $10,000 or more PLUS attorney fees! No standing required!
To briefly quote the Times: “The result is a law that is extremely difficult to challenge before it takes effect on Sept. 1, because it is hard to know whom to sue to block it, and lawyers for clinics are now wrestling with what to do about it. Six-week bans in other states have all been blocked as they make their way through the court system.”
Even completely setting aside the abortion aspect, this law is preposterous! Republicans claim to be against frivolous lawsuits clogging the courts and bringing windfalls for undeserving litigants, but I guess that’s just another part of their “conservative” philosophy they’ve left behind them in the dust.
Surely, the appropriate response is to sue each and ever Republican lawmaker for having an abortion? Maybe they claim they didn’t, but make them prove it in a court of law.
I saw one article that said that if you go to a facility to have an abortion, some rando off the street can not only sue you and the facility, but the Uber drive who took you there.
The rando suing part is correct, but the Uber driver part probably isn’t.
I looked at the statute itself and it prohibits
*actually performing or inducing an abortion after a fetal heartbeat,
*“knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise, if the abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subchapter, regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion would be performed or induced in violation of this subchapter;”
*Intending to do either of the above!
So if you lend someone money for an abortion, or an insurance company pays for an abortion, they’re liable even if they didn’t know the abortion was after a fetal heartbeat! Or if you even intend to pay for an abortion but an abortion doesn’t happen, you’re liable! Oh, if you can show that after a reasonable investigation you believed the abortion (or intended abortion!) complied with the law, you can present an affirmative defense, but the burden’s on you to conduct the investigation and present the defense, not on the yahoo suing to prove you knew.
I’m no lawyer, but it seems that if you can abet a robbery by driving the getaway car, you can also abet an abortion if you drive the car that takes the woman to the clinic.
…Or at least, if you can make Uber drivers fear that possible outcome, you can also dry up the number of people who will take that fare. Which may be the desired outcome for the Texas legislature.
Madison Cawthorn went on the CPAC stage and said that Biden’s plan to go door to door to help people get vaccinated is a plot to steal our Bibles and our guns.
Well I certainly don’t have any guns post-Obama administration. And don’t let the fact that I didn’t have any guns to begin with or the fact that I’m not even American distract you from the fact: By the time the Obama administration was done, I didn’t have any guns!
Now they’re starting to talk about going door-to-door to be able to take vaccines to the people. Think about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing. And then think about what those mechanisms could be used for.
Yes, imagine the sort of infrastructure that they would need. They would need a fleet of trucks and people able to go door to door on foot. They might even develop a system of numeric codes that are linked to specific Zones, and may go so far as to number individual buildings on a given street so they can be easily identified. Once they are given this power they may not stop with just one visit but might come by your house every day but Sunday or Federal Holidays. Its not even clear whether god smiting them with snow or rain or heat or gloom of night might keep them from their appointed rounds. Thank god the federal government has never been allowed such power, who knows what they would do with it.
Nah, it’s obvious the next step is to tattoo numbers on people’s arms. Or maybe foreheads where they’ll be easier to read with a scanner. No–wait! Tattoo the numbers on the tops of people’s heads so the numbers can be read from drones and satellites.
That means that everyone will have to have a small circle of hair shaved from the top of their head (like monks’ tonsures) so the numbers can easily be read. And all hats will be outlawed. Except MAGA hats, which will be open on top so Beloved Leader and his Flying Monkeys can keep track of everyone’s <ahem> movements.
I can think of another possibility: issue everyone a bracelet at birth, inscribed with the individual’s name and number (nameber, for short). To make the concept more palatable, designate the day when a link has to be added a day of celebration, similar to one’s birthday; call it … linkday!
Then all you need is a system of scanners at every door, checkout counter, aircraft boarding gate, &c &c &c. Whenever the individual wants to do or buy something, touching the bracelet to the scanner sends the request to an all-knowing central computer, which evaluates it and responds yes or no. Conditioned from birth to obey, the individual reacts accordingly. Simple, no?
For those to whom the above suggests I’ve been smoking some really good shit, I’m channeling This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. While it’s held up as a cautionary tale by the libertarian fringe, I tend to look at as an example of corporate data collection run amok. The bracelet concept is somewhat obsolete, but I don’t think RFID was widely known when the book was written.
I agree with everything you said except it can’t be a bracelet. Clearly, it needs to be a microchip! Bracelets can be removed and bootlegged (as it were). <pondering> But then, so can microchips. That’s why I originally said tattoo with some kind of electronically readable ink that can never be removed or blocked. I’m sure we have the technology lying around somewhere or other. Ask Bill Gates.
NY Times article. Texas Tribune article.
Oh, if you can show that after a reasonable investigation you believed the abortion (or intended abortion!) complied with the law, you can present an affirmative defense, but the burden’s on you to conduct the investigation and present the defense, not on the yahoo suing to prove you knew.