Here at LPJL we’ve been following the latest super creepy anti abortion regulation in Texas — a mandate which would require fetal remains from abortion procedures, miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies to be buried.
This is yet another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad requirement designed to end safe legal abortion. Aside from the total insanity, the trickery of this would put the burden of paying for each burial of every single procedure on providers. It would be so cost prohibitive that clinics could not afford to stay open. Voila, another law that punishes pregnant people and providers. Also, bafflingly, the fetal burial requirement would only apply to individuals at healthcare facilities — meaning there’s a huge risk for anyone miscarrying or experiencing complications from an abortion to seek medical help because they would have to participate in burial arrangements!
Yet again, these laws would specifically affect low income women, while also perpetuating a major inconsistency in terms of why these remains would need to be buried in the first place.
TL;DR: This legislation isn’t about women’s health or environmental health. It’s just a sneaky, slimy “backdoor” way of prohibiting abortions in the state.
So it’s not at all surprising that this regulation (and others like it) have earned glowing endorsements from the most prominent anti-abortion nuts in the country — including HIV-in-the-water-supply truther (no, really) Carol Everett.
After fighting and winning as plaintiff in Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt, independent provider, reproductive rights rockstar and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health Amy Hagstrom Miller, is back again, signing on again to be the plaintiff defending abortion access by calling for a federal judge to send this toxic ooze back to the hell from whence it came. Hearings start TODAY for the case and we’ll hopefully be hearing some good news by January 6 — luckily, in the meantime, the rule has been delayed.
As you might’ve guessed, Hagstrom-Miller has a deep bench of activists, scientists and medical professionals on her side who can attest to how little this trash legislation will do to help women — not that any of those folks tend to sway your everyman anti-choice legis-hater.
David Brown, one of the attorneys working with the Center for Reproductive Rights, put it: this case is another example of “the government of Texas defying the Supreme Court” and the ultimate take-away of WWH v. Hellerstedt — that “medically unnecessary sham laws designed to restrict abortion access are unconstitutional.”
We’ve watched Amy and her team of heroes fight this fight before but now it’s time for all of us to act up and #StopTheSham, once and for all.
