I Could Kiss You, Texas Reps!

Oh. Hello. 

I've missed you dearly. 

Since you last saw me, I have:

Study my brains out for Comps.

Took said Comps

Finished my Photography class

Read a book for a book club

Saw The Vagina Monologues

Partied with a Professor

Spent 7 hours writing

Continued being a wife and daughter and friend (kind of)

Paid bills

and packed for our trip to watch my best friend get married on Friday.

But, that's not what I want to talk about today. 

I want to talk about Texas, and specifically, how bad ass some of the Representatives are.

There's always a slew of Anti-Choice legislation which comes into play during the legislation season. I mean, it's just part of it. And, Texas was no different. The newest one (which really isn't so new) is that a woman who wants an abortion would have to view a sonogram and then wait one day before having the procedure. Currently, you have to wait at least one day after making an appointment. So, now, let's make you come into the clinic (you know, since they are so convenient for everyone), force you to see the fetus and then send you on your merry way to make sure you want to follow through with this decision. As if making the appointment in the first place wasn't difficult enough. 

This bill will pass. Without a shadow of a doubt, this bill will pass. But, not without some fight. 

Three legislators added some fantastic amendments. All have been tabled, but whatever. They are...

drum roll...

One that would require the state to pay the child’s college tuition if the woman decides not to have an abortion, one that would require the state to cover the child’s health care till they were 18, and when that failed one that wold require the state to pay for health care till the child was 6. -State Representative Harold Dutton of Houston

 ...require clinics that provide abortions to also provide medically accurate information about contraception. - State Representative Joaquin Castro of San Antonio

 ...let the pregnant woman force the father to have a vasectomy.- State Representative Marisa Marquez of El Paso

I could kiss them. Each of them.

Especially Dutton. He gave a statement that said, 

“We want to see all these children around, but the state of Texas ends its obligation to that child when it’s born,” he said. “We want it born, but we don’t want to do our duty.”

 Amen. 

And Castro? Well, you know, clinics already do that. That's actually the main function. So, letting that amendment stand would do change nothing. Yet we table it anyway.

Marquez: Exactly. This is so absurd that we would never consider it. And yet, Anti-Choicers do this. They force their beliefs on my body. 

Okay, reigning it in. These three people are amazing. Truly. Even though none of this would go through, they are fighting, and I am in love. If you’d like to thank these three legislators you can contact Rep. Dutton here, Rep. Castro here, and Rep. Marquez here. 

I know I will.

first heard about through feministing