God-fearing Christian Republicans 1, Texas Women 0

Fortunately, this fight isn't near being over yet

A lawsuit that could test the constitutionality of the nation’s most restrictive abortion ban was filed in Texas Monday against a doctor who admitted to performing an abortion considered illegal under the new law.

The details of the civil suit against Alan Braid, a physician in San Antonio, are as unusual as the law itself, which empowers private citizens to enforce the ban on abortion oncecardiac activity has been detected — often as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The plaintiff is a felon serving a federal sentence at home in Arkansas, with no connection to the abortion at issue. He said he filed the claim, not because of strongly held views about reproductive rights, but in part because of the $10,000 he could receive if the lawsuit is successful. A second suit filed Monday — just four paragraphs long — came from a man in Chicago who asked a state court to strike the abortion law as invalid.

If you can’t beat Gideon- er, Texas- by playing by the conventional rules, then you’ll have to defeat Gideon by playing by their rules, eh? So we’ll fight S.B. 8 (the “Texas Heartbeat Act”) in the streets, in the trenches…or by using it against those who are using it to obliterate Roe v. Wade.

Republicans in the Texas Legislature have empowered Texans to become vigilantes in the battle against the silly notion that women should control their own bodies. They’ve been deputized by the Legislature to enforce the state’s new end-run around Roe v. Wade anti-abortion. Technology being what it is, they’ve authorized anyone, within Texas or without, to file suit against anyone even tangentially involved with providing abortion services beyond six weeks within the Lone Star State.

That’s right; if you even THINK about assisting a woman with getting an abortion, you can be sued for up to $10,000 by ANYONE.

Because, as any good, God-fearing, patriotic Texan will tell you, a woman’s uterus is rightfully the property of the Great State of Texas. And as such, no woman is permitted to have an abortion beyond the sixth week of her pregnancy. Of course, six weeks is before most women even know they’re pregnant, but that’s wholly irrelevant to the good, God-fearing Christian Republicans behind the law. They know that God loves the unborn, and so they’re simply doing the Lord’s work, don’tchaknow??

It’s what Jesus would do.

Of course, the fact that these same good, God-fearing Christian Republicans don’t give a damn about children once they exit the womb is of no concern to them. If women can’t afford to raise children, they shouldn’t have gotten pregnant (or have had sex) in the first place.

And that’s what this is really about. The good, God-fearing Christian Republicans in the Texas Legislature hate the idea that women have sex for reasons other than procreation. People who probably haven’t gotten laid since the Clinton Administration are deciding that sex should for one purpose only- to bring children into the world. If they could, they’d pass legislation declaring that sexual congress, when done for procreative purposes, can only be done in the missionary position…and can last no more than 90 seconds.

In His eye….

How’s that “party of small government” working for you? Just small enough to fit into a woman’s vagina, eh??

The Texas Heartbeat Act sounds like a band you’d find at a roadhouse in Seagoville or an dance hall in Gruene. It’s a law whose enforcement doesn’t even involve the government. Instead, it relies on private citizens serving as state-sanctioned vigilantes. It’s as immoral as it is unconscionable. Then again, one could reasonably use both words to describe the good, God-fearing Christian Republicans in the Texas Legislature.

So, the time has come to beat them at their own game.

In Texas, [Dr. Alan] Braid stepped forward last week to say that he provided an abortion to a woman who was in the early stages of pregnancy, but beyond the state’s new limit. Despite the legal risks, Braid said in a Washington Post column that he acted because of his duty as a doctor and “because she has a fundamental right to receive this care.”

Stilley, the Arkansas man, said he decided to sue after reading a news report about Braid’s declaration. A former lawyer convicted of tax fraud in 2010 and sentenced to 15 years, [Oscar] Stilley said in an interview that he is not personally opposed to abortion, but believes that the measure should be subject to judicial review.

“If the law is no good, why should we have to go through a long, drawn-out process to find out if it’s garbage?” he said after filing the complaint in state court in Bexar County,Tex., which includes San Antonio. Stilley also noted that a successful lawsuit could result in a “bounty” of at least $10,000for the plaintiff.

The object of the Texas Heartbeat Act was never to provoke a test case, of course. It was to choke off the practice of abortion altogether. Until Dr. Braid stepped forward with his public admission in the Washington Post, the law has had the effect desired by the good, God-fearing Christian Republicans in the Texas Legislature. Abortion had instantly disappeared in Texas.

There are two aspects of the law that make it different and exceedingly dangerous in a legal sense. First, the state of Texas has no part in the enforcement aspect of the law. Instead, that role falls to Joe and Ethel Sixpack- or anyone else who feels like playing vigilante.

Second, there’s the fact that the law doesn’t require the person(s) filing suit to have standing. Anyone anywhere can file suit and be awarded up to a $10,000 judgment if they prevail in court. If the defendant doesn’t appear, an automatic default judgment against them means they’re out $10,000.

Melissa Murray, a professor at New York University School of Law, said lawsuits like the one Stilley filed on Monday were “never the principal goal” of the Texas law. The main point, she said, was to avoid a preemptive legal challenge and to “absolutely bring reproductive care in Texas to a standstill. That was always the endgame.”

Until Braid’s public admission, abortion clinics in Texas said they were abiding by the new restrictions and sending women to Oklahoma, Kansas and New Mexico to terminate their pregnancies.

The law bars abortion at a time when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant. There are no exceptions in the law for rape, sexual abuse or incest.

Then there’s the implied terrorism behind the law, which allows anybody to sue anyone they believe to be even tangentially associated with providing abortion services. That can mean clinic staff, an Uber driver, a person on the street who gives directions to the clinic- the list is endless and left up to the imagination of the vigilante filing suit. The intent is to scare anyone and everyone away from assisting in abortion in any shape, manner, or form.

To call the Texas Heartbeat Act draconian, overly broad, and unconstitutional is an understatement. But, not being an attorney, no one should trust my legal opinion. Likewise, no one should underestimate the power of a Texas judge to do the unimaginable.

This “new and novel” strategy on the part of the anti-choice lobby proves just how far they’re willing to go to demonstrate first, how much they hate women, and second, the lengths they’ll go to lock down a woman’s right to control her own body. And they will always be able to find a friendly judge somewhere in the Lone Star State willing to rule in their favor.

If I was a betting man- thankfully, I’m not- I’d wager there’s a good chance that the Texas Heartbeat Act won’t survive long in the federal court system. One shouldn’t take that to mean that the anti-choice cabal will see that as a defeat. It might be a temporary setback, as there’s a Mississippi case about to go before the Supreme Court. The God-fearing Christian Republicans in the anti-choice movement have convinced themselves that the Mississippi case is the silver bullet that will finally topple Roe v. Wade once and for all.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. However, Donald Trump packed the Supreme Court with overturning Roe v. Wade as the only issue that was front of mind, so “settled law” doesn’t look so settled. A solid 6-3 Conservative majority with an actual handmaid (and Justice I Like Beer) on the bench doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the right to safe, legal abortions will be upheld.

The anti-choice cabal long ago gave up on the idea of a full-on front assault on Roe v. Wade. They know that a majority of Americans support abortion rights and a woman’s right to choose. Not that they care about polls, of course.

What they’ve chosen instead is the equivalent of guerilla warfare. Instead of fighting abortion in the federal courts, they’ve taken it on state by state. The idea is that a patient, low-grade, intensive assault on abortion rights would eventually wear down abortion supporters.

For most of the past 40+ years, those committed to repealing Roe v. Wade have tinkered around the margins. In reliably red states, they’ve succeeded in passing laws that have progressively choked off access to abortion services while technically not criminalizing it (see “TRAP laws”). So while abortion may still be “legal,” there’s no practical way for a woman to obtain an abortion in at least 11 states.

The Texas Heartbeat Act is one of the most cynical and mean-spirited efforts put forth by God-fearing Christian Republicans. Of course, when all you care about is a child before it emerges from the womb, you don’t fight by conventional rules or morals. Nor do you respect the teaching of your religion, which says precisely nothing about abortion.

The only way this cycle of meanness and faux-Christian tyranny stops is if Congress passes a bill codifying Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. Can that happen? Who knows? In a Democratic-majority Congress that can’t even get basic legislation passed because it won’t get rid of the filibuster in the Senate, it seems like a long shot.

Stay tuned. The God-fearing Christian Republicans in the Texas Legislature and elsewhere have a tremendous degree of commitment and staying power. The question remains how and/or if the pro-choice forces will be able to overcome that and protect a woman’s right to choose.

This fight is far from over.

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