Texas

Serious topic today - abortion. You have been warned.

Texas, where the powers-that-be prohibit requiring children to wear masks in school. Texas, where the powers-that-be prohibit some of the same children -- for according to Texas Family Law, an individual under 18 years of age is a child -- from obtaining abortion services, since abortion beyond about six weeks (a time point where most individuals don't even know they are pregnant) has been outlawed. And the Supreme Court, through inaction, let the law stand. 

Abortion care is necessary health care. I won't spell out the numerous reasons, because I am too angry to do so. There are plenty of other sites that will provide those explanations. 

I don't have to explain how people become unexpectedly or unwantedly pregnant; you can easily imagine all the ways. (Especially if you are a woman -- we spend most of our lives thinking about how not to become pregnant, and a mere fraction of our lives thinking about how to actually become pregnant.)  Remember to include pregnancies due to rape, abuse, coercion. And don't forget, too, those expected or wanted pregnancies that go wrong somehow. 

I don't need to give examples of who might need an abortion, or why. Reasons are as varied as women are themselves -- economic, societal, personal; for safety, be it physical or mental; for health (or lack thereof), of woman or of fetus. So many reasons. 

No one contemplates abortion lightly. I think about all the women I know who have chosen to terminate a pregnancy, and not one was flippant or casual about the decision. It is always a serious matter. Those of us who have never found ourselves in circumstances where abortion was one of the contemplated options, can consider ourselves lucky. I know I do. 

To be able to exert control over one's body and one's biological destiny is paramount. 

Abortion in Texas has become the domain of the privileged: those who can travel, those who have funds to seek out black-market care, will still be able to do so, for a price. Can't pay? out of luck. Back alleys return. Abortion has become much more dangerous. 

I think about the fact that mine is the only generation that didn't have to potentially die not to have a baby. 

We were so fortunate. 

And for those who wondered why we mourned the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg so much: Texas is why. This is it.