Texas--with one of the country's strictest abortion bans, highest maternal mortality rates, and the most women without health insurance--faces an "epidemic" of abandoned babies, some being found in ditches and dumpsters https://wapo.st/3ZXDbks
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If you let ANY "pro life" advocate talk long enough, every single argument against abortion always comes down to the mother having to "accept the consequences of having sex".
It's not about life. It never was. It's always been about punishing women for having sex.
I was just there. Not sure if I’d describe it as 3rd World. They have power, clean water, and rule of law. But their abortion ban is going to erode the society even more than has already been done.
Sounds like 1968. It will remain invisible to mainstream society there, even when it hits their own family in many cases. All the straw men in the world won’t change that.
Someone needs to make a movie about this to drive home how horrific it is, then take that movie on a tour of churches, and then maybe we could flip the script on evangelical support of abortions. They were neutral before such a tour was done to convince them that abortions are immoral.
One can expect all of these rates to decline as Texas has stopped officially recording these kind of numbers, leading to a "less reported, the less it happened" situation that the Texas GOP can proudly point to.
They should all take them to the governors mansion. Since he loved allowing mass murder of our children he can keep them and care for them. But not one red dime if taxes will go to his responsibility.
I keep hearing about how these abortion bans are about sanctity of life and protecting women and children and yet they have the opposite effect. Lack of critical thinking is killing women and infants.
I agree but the anti abortion argument is protection of the sanctity of life while the policies have the opposite effect. People listen to emotional appeals without thinking about what policy means. Like the shock for many that fetal personhood means no IVF. Reproductive rights are tied together.
People who are adamantly "pro-life" say it's about the sanctity of life, but every single one of them view babies as a consequence women who have the "wrong" kind of sex must face. Allowing them control over their bodies is letting them get away with unapproved behavior.
These people are NOT pro-life. They are pro-forced birth. They are deeply uncomfortable with the natural expression of female sexuality. At the heart of it all, they simply want to control women. Yes, even the women who are passionately pro-forced birth. Especially them.
I think the people pushing the laws are trying to control women, but the people electing those people are often just swept up in the emotion of "They're killing babies in the womb!!" without any further thought.
A lot of people's inability to think beyond one or two steps is a problem.
It was easy to be "pro-life" when Roe was in effect because care could be accessed (even if jumping through hoops). A lot of people never had to think past "saving babies" and that a ban on abortion was really a ban on reproductive freedom and the right to make medical decisions for oneself.
I just despair of figuring out how to get these people to understand what they're doing.
And indeed there may be a strong "control the wimmins" under it all, but I don't know how conscious that is for a lot of them. They just...don't think.
Or read.
I think the more these stories get told the more the dots get connected but so much misery would be avoided if people would be interested in more than bumper sticker slogans.
It's got absolutely nothing to do with sanctity of life and protecting women and children. Republicans are pandering to misogyny and patriarchy. It has everything to do with stripping women of autonomy and control over their own lives.
I agree, we are in the midst of a patriarchal backlash, but the argument anti-abortionists put forward is the sanctity of life. This story pokes all the holes in that.
Texas is led by the most evil, corrupt, MAGA Republicans. These men are clueless but want to make women chattel. And the women who agree are just as bad.
Texas is a heartless, arrogant, obstinate and bloodthirsty state under GOP rule. They truly do not care. These consequences are met with sanctimonious Thoughts and Prayers and the unspoken belief that they somehow deserved it.
This is why the old trope of people leaving babies on doorsteps used to be featured so heavily in stories until the past few decades or so. It was a more common practice.
This is exactly why I created The Tubman Travel Project.
We need help as our first travel flight of 2025 is happening in January. Over the last three years, I have helped over 450 women travel from Texas to New Mexico. We need your support to triple that number.
So it's the anti abortion laws that are actually causing real "post birth abortions"? This was well predicted, unfortunately. Blood is on the hands of "pro life"
My mom says they should instead dump the baby at their local politicians house. Wrap them in a blanket like baby Moses and let Ted Cruz handle it. Dark. But she has a point.
Wait, I was told all of these pro-life groups REALLY CARED about babies and mothers, and they would find good adoptive homes for those that didn't want to keep their children.
Texas has the Baby Moses Law, but it requires that you physically hand your baby to an employee of the firehouse/ems/etc., and tell them what you're doing. Psychologically, that is a barrier. Education about the law is also very low.
Wasn’t this a thing back in the 70~90s? I specifically remember movies about prom night “dumpster babies” and “toilet babies” which then lead to fire stations having secret doors where you can drop off your unwanted baby.
There have been multiple babies abandoned over the course of months, hence the use of the term "epidemic." The singular example used in the article is not representative of the bigger issue.
I'd like to think it's the people I follow (easily changed) and not apathy & misogyny (ineradicable) but yours is the only repost of this article. Grateful I found you.
Orphanages would have to register and track their acquisitions, and acquisitions with papers may have rights, depending on how effective deregulation will be a decade from now.
They don't care. They never care about how harmful their religious platforms are. They just want to say, I did this to their evangelical supporters. Who.... Also don't care. They're so keen on doing what they think God wants. No extra thought, even if it does the opposite of what God wants
Comments
It's not about life. It never was. It's always been about punishing women for having sex.
The republicans don't give a damn about babies or life. They just want the woman punished for having sex.
As long as she's forced to give birth, as painfully as possible, the gop doesn't give HALF a rat's ass what happens to the baby.
Sounds Devine!
lol. Supreme Twats….
https://archive.ph/WCPWB
A lot of people's inability to think beyond one or two steps is a problem.
I just despair of figuring out how to get these people to understand what they're doing.
And indeed there may be a strong "control the wimmins" under it all, but I don't know how conscious that is for a lot of them. They just...don't think.
I think the more these stories get told the more the dots get connected but so much misery would be avoided if people would be interested in more than bumper sticker slogans.
Impossible to forget the images of those babies.
What an understatement.
We need help as our first travel flight of 2025 is happening in January. Over the last three years, I have helped over 450 women travel from Texas to New Mexico. We need your support to triple that number.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tubmantravelproject
No Texas legislators step forward with help. They just want to punish women, and by extension, their babies, for existing.
A Safe Haven Law that no one knows about is meaningless. Typical Texas.
it’s just a happy side effect for those guys (ted, greg, paxton, etc.)
I'll bet Greg Abbott gets all sweaty, though, knowing he can further demonize desperate women by prosecuting them for murder.
Turns out, that was a lie.
People would do well to remember Charles Manson's early days, because this is how you get people like him....
Predictably.
But MAGA pols and fac1st xtians don’t care.
Cruelty is a weapon the RIGHTous love to wield.