What Next - The Texans Fighting for Abortion Access
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Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
Texas has passed a new law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, enforced by citizens launching lawsuits against anyone suspected of “aiding and abetting” the procedures. And the Supreme Court has declined to stop it - effectively ending the precedent set by Roe v. Wade. How are Texas organizations supporting reproductive rights adapting?
Guest: Anna Rupani, Co-Executive Director of Fund Texas Choice.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Texas took the dauntless step last week to enact a strange, an almost absolute abortion ban. |
| 0:11.0 | The U.S. Supreme Court decided in a five to four vote not to intervene, and when that happened, a bunch of liberals I know said, that's it. Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land. |
| 0:23.2 | That kind of talk is understandable, and I guess technically correct. But from the perspective of |
| 0:29.0 | abortion care activists in Texas, it's also kind of counterproductive. |
| 0:34.5 | Like, it's meant to make people think that abortion is illegal everywhere, not just in Texas. |
| 0:39.3 | Ana Rupani works for Fund Texas Choice, an abortion support group. |
| 0:44.3 | She has come to resent the way the new Texas law is discussed. |
| 0:48.3 | The way it's being talked about, people think that they're going to get in trouble for getting an abortion, |
| 0:52.3 | when that's not the case. |
| 0:53.3 | The people that would get in trouble would be folks like myself and the clinicians and the providers and the abortion funds and potentially anyone else in-between. |
| 1:05.0 | The in-between part is what's so novel about this new abortion law. |
| 1:09.3 | Texas now bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, |
| 1:12.7 | but it also allows private citizens to sue anyone who helps or intends to help someone else get an |
| 1:18.8 | abortion in the state. Complaintants whose lawsuits are successful would get $10,000 from the person |
| 1:24.6 | they're hauling to court under the law. It's written so vaguely that |
| 1:28.2 | it scares people to even donate. It scares people to like do ride shares. Being scared is rational. |
| 1:36.2 | Texas clinics have reported an uptick and surveillance outside their buildings, people in the |
| 1:40.6 | parking lot taking pictures, jotting things down. A couple weeks ago, an anti-abortion group called Texas Right to Life began soliciting tips from people. |
| 1:49.8 | People, quote, on the sidewalks at the abortion mills. |
| 1:53.3 | Submit information with as many details as a possible. |
| 1:57.2 | You can stop abortion by protecting women and children from unsafe criminal abortions. |
| 2:03.5 | Abortion clinics in Texas saw a surge in patients last week, people rushing in to get their procedures before they became illegal. |
... |
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