This one is hitting close to home, I have a younger female relative with a genetic condition - one that affects reproduction only — and, in addition to causing difficulties in conceiving and a higher risk of miscarriage, she also has a 1 percent chance in any pregnancy of having a child with trisomy 13, a condition with a similar prognosis as trisomy 18.
If our state gets as regressive as Texas, she won’t be able to attempt to have any more children, it would be too dangerous.
I know people here think I’m being hyperbolic when I say it, but they are the fucking Taliban.
I’m NOT the OP. And we’re 650+ posts in.
But IMO by far the worst part of this entire thread is is the word “Reluctantly” in the title. Pisses me off every time I see it in my Unread thread list.
If I was Emperor of the USA, Texas would be thrown out of the USA tomorrow and all Texans with a record of support for decency would be offered paid-for asylum in the USA while all the others would be persona non grata prohibited from ever setting foot in the USA.
Any time those pig fuckers talk about seceding, I think yes please do. Take your share of the national debt and fuck all the way off.
What can you say about a state in which people working in their DMV do not think Alaska is a US state?
I had a friend that had to live there for a while, moving from Alaska, and the clerk at the DMV would not take her license and automatically allow her a Texas license, because “we don’t take driver’s licenses from foreign countries.” I am NOT making that story up, it’s absolutely true. Even the office head was suspicious but allowed it anyway as it looked as if my friend would go over her head and cause hassle.
I feel like this is more about punishing abortion doctors in Texas, making the state even more hostile to them than it already is. Punishing the woman while he’s at it is just gravy.
I don’t think that would impact Paxton in the slightest. If this lady was famous for walking into a school with an AR-15 and shooting a bunch of kids, he’d be arguing on behalf of the gun.
I was just about to say the same thing when I read your post.
Good thing she wasn’t from New Mexico. ICE would have been called.
There’s a whole lotta stupid in every state. And, no matter which state, the DMV (by whichever name) is a butt of jokes for a reason. So I’m not much worked up about this particular story.
OTOH …
Even here on the 'Dope with a worldwide membership we encounter people of general goodwill who are Texans but cannot imagine that anywhere else on this big planet differs in anything but the barest of nuance.
Friggin morons every one of em.
Well, I am the OP, and I included the “reluctantly” because it’s what’s in my heart. Hard as it may be to believe, daily life in Texas is not a relentless, dystopian nightmare. This state is so much more than its governing elite. This is one of the most diverse, vibrant states in the country. The vast majority of people I know are decent enough folks just trying their best to provide for themselves and their families.
And I was also reluctant because I foresaw where this thread would likely go. At least you make some provision for Texans who “support decency” to claim asylum before the entire state is cast into the void. Others have made no such distinction. I recognize that “Fuck Texas” is a fundamentally absurd position – am I cursing at the land? And if it’s the people, is it all the people? There were more Biden voters in Texas than the entire population of some other states. Should they be faulted for not doing enough? I’ve certainly gotten a sense that many in this thread believe that the millions of Texans who oppose our autocratic state government are getting what they deserve for not doing more or moving elsewhere.
Anyway, I’ve come to regret starting this thread. Maybe “Fuck the Texas State Government” would have been more appropriate. But in my defense I was freezing my ass off at the time.
How about “Fuck the Fuckworthy Texans”?
Twenty-eight other states, to be precise, plus the District of Columbia and all insular territories for addtional pedantry.
And, as someone with loved ones in Texas, I approve of the “reluctantly” qualifier you opened this thread with, though I still shake my head and raise a glass to the memory of Phillip Sheridan from time to time…
Of course, there were more Trump voters in California than in Texas. (6,006,429 to 5,890,347).
My RW acquaintances hate it when they are bashing California and I bring up this fact.
/endhijack
I fully endorse @flurb’s post. I was born in Texas but didn’t grow up (totally) here. We moved here in 1964 when I was in high school.
This. ^^^
Yeah, our state government is an appalling embarrassment. And it seems to be getting worse. No argument there.
I’m guessing residents of Missouri and Florida sometimes hang their heads in shame, too.
In light of her health and that the Texas Supreme Court has given no timetable for ruling on her case, Kate Cox has left Texas to get an abortion.
I obviously don’t fault her at all — no one should have to martyr themselves for the cause of access to reproductive health and she did more than her part to shine a light on the real harm caused by anti-abortion zealots in positions of power.
And more people voted for Trump in California than voted for Trump than in Texas, the state with the highest popular vote for him. Doesn’t make California even purple, never mind red.
Edit: What Railer13 said.
Isn’t that illegal in Texas?
No, its not a crime to have an abortion in Texas or for a Texan to leave to get an abortion.
State laws do not criminalize the person who has an abortion. Some Texans have found ways to get abortions by traveling to other states or Mexico, or self-managing abortions at home by getting medications through international nonprofits, such as Aid Access, or online stores.
Texas instead targets those who provide support and perform abortions. But even they’re not brazen enough to criminalize the woman getting the abortion. (Yet.)
I will expect that Ken Paxton will now do everything he possibly can to try to prosecute people in relation to Ms. Cox leaving the state for an abortion. At a minimum, I expect her husband to be sued as an accomplice.
Yeah, now I don’t see how she or anyone who helped her can ever come back. Technically she won’t be prosecuted or sued unless the lege passes such a law (probably will at some point) and makes it retroactive. But they can prosecute and/or civilly sue anyone else they want to.
Can’t anyone help us? We (Texas) need help, and I’m serious. I would have hoped that women being told they have to carry a dead or dying fetus even against standard medical recommendations from the patient’s own physician and at serious detriment to her own health or life would cross some kind of line, civil rights, whatever, even if the 6-week ban technically didn’t.
Why are we just being abandoned? This level of harm would seem to go beyond “states’ rights,” but obvs I’m not a lawyer.
I’m so tired of hearing “just move,” “just get all the millions of other Texans to pay attention and vote Dem reliably,” “just fix it own your own with no power or money.”
If Cox gets her abortion out of state, that means the court case is going to get dismissed as moot, right?