Texas deals with women with unwanted pregnancy and their hardcore anti-Abortion Zeal…
In one of those bags, a baby had been crying. Now, only silence.
“They didn’t want to touch it,” Pequet says. “It was very still.”
A quarter century ago, prompted by a spate of abandoned babies in Houston, this state became the first in the country to pass a safe haven law allowing parents to relinquish newborns at designated places — without questions or risk of prosecution. Yet “Baby Moses” surrenders remain rare in Texas, and another series of abandoned infants since spring in the Houston area has prompted much soul-searching….
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Texas is ranked next to last for women’s health and reproductive care, according to the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, which supports independent research on such issues. And with legislators having repeatedly cut funding for that care, the percentage of women without health insurance is higher here than in any other state. This year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered Texas public hospitals to track the cost of treating immigrants who are in the country illegally, potentially deterring women from seeking care for fear of being turned over to authorities.
“All of these intersectional things could be leading to this,” said Blake Rocap, a lawyer with the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project at the University of Texas at Austin. The chilling effect of the near-total abortion ban, he believes, is compounded by “abysmal” access to prenatal care, “particularly for people without private insurance, particularly for people without immigration status.”
And for all the angst every time a newborn is found, Republican leaders who control state government have long declined to fund an awareness campaign so that new mothers know where to turn should they decide that they cannot keep their baby….
Note…
Abortion has become slightly more common despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, and the legal and political fights over its future are not over yet.
It’s now been two and a half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to implement bans.
The policies and their impact have been in flux ever since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization….
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