Two Texas jurisdictions will consider measures this week to outlaw the act of transporting another person along their roads for an abortion, part of a strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Commissioners in Lubbock County are slated to vote on the proposal on Monday. A few hours north, the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday will weigh its own such law, which could lead to a future council or city-wide vote.
Lubbock and Amarillo are the biggest jurisdictions of the 10 places in Texas that have considered restrictions on abortion-related transportation since the June 2022 end of Roe, which had granted a nationwide right to abortion. Five cities and counties in the state have passed bans.
There was a much smaller town, I believe more in East Texas, that brought such an ordinance up. I was pleasantly shocked that they eventually came to the conclusion that their proposed “papers please” environment was a wee bit too much like what many of their older residents had fought against.
Sadly, I’m not confident that clearer minds will continue to prevail.
Further, as I type this, I’m in an airport in Dallas headed to Nevada where I’m going to gamble, have sex out of wedlock, consume cannabis, and potentially purchase and consume an alcoholic beverage between the hours of two and seven in the morning. Somehow, no Texas legislator has any interest in prohibiting my endeavors. Seems inconsistent.
Somehow, no Texas legislator has any interest in prohibiting my endeavors. Seems inconsistent.
Were you born male, and do you still identify as such? That might have something to do with it.
Exactly their gender hierarchy is simple: cis men having full freedom and protection, cis women having protection as provided by a cis man, everyone else’s existence threatens the legitimacy of this system and must be forced into one of the boxes with violence if needed
I’m betting the gambling prohibition will fall in Texas in the next 10 years. Same in other states that ban it. There is just way too much money going to their immediate neighbors for the politicians to not get greedy.
Doubtful. They still have dry counties for fucks sake
And of course, marijuana is still illegal, even though it’s making money for the much less populated state to the north.
Very few of those remain. It was rough when I got here twenty years ago.
I used to work terrible wrecks at the liquor store on the edge just outside of a dry county.
The real problem is this notion that these abortion bans are enforced through private lawsuits, and not by actual law enforcement. The law was crafted this way on purpose, to evade judicial review: you can’t sue the State over its enforcement if the state doesn’t enforce it. The article even quotes someone pointing out that all this does is get localities involved in private lawsuits.
Conservatives are super afraid of the Government intruding on people’s lives but have no problem at all empowering nosy neighbors to do it.
As an experiment, a Liberal city with strict gun laws ought to pass similar laws empowering nosy neighbors to sue people they suspect of harboring illegal firearms, and Transporting them across state lines. It may be the only way to get this Conservative Supreme Court to address this practice.
Conservatives are super afraid of the Government intruding on people’s lives but have no problem at all empowering nosy neighbors to do it.
More specifically, they have no problem with the government empowering itself to act on behalf of a specific faction of nosy neighbors by rendering judgments and using the power of the state to enforce them in a way that’s functionally equivalent to treating those neighbors as witnesses to a crime.
If the Supreme Court was a judicial body and not an instrument of the Republican party, they would have stuck down the Texas law as an obvious “fuck you” to judicial authority based entirely on playing dumb about what RvW allows. But it turns out they didn’t care because they were already planning on overturning RvW anyway, along with concepts like standing and precedent.
God I hate them so much.
It’s not just unconstitutional, it’s legally nonsensical. Citizens of a state are not the property of the state, a state only has jurisdiction over what people do inside the state itself.
And yet the US federal government taxes income earned outside of the US.
i am confused how the feds cant now also dig up the bastardized, dead horse that is the commerce clause and use it against TX here.
or how the fuck does your legal intent in another jurisdiction makes you a prisoner of the current one?
It very specifically doesn’t. The federal government regulates interstate commerce, pretty literally all of their intended power is derived by controlling the economy and holding an army.
I really feel like politicians should be held financially liable for the legal costs of defending obviously unconstitutional laws like this. I mean, it’s so unbelievably unconstitutional that no serious judge would allow it to stand in a legal challenge. That makes this a waste of taxpayer money when it inevitably goes to judicial challenge.
I’m sorry, but does this say: Texas can’t stop you from having an abortion, so they’ll make it illegal for someone to transport you there?
It is illegal for any city or fucking state from keeping you from driving to another state or city no matter the purpose. Fuck these cities and fuck the federal government for not intervening and putting a stop to this bullshit.
This is kind of bs you see in North Korea or some communist hell hole like China. But Republicans and their voters are to stupid to see that.
I hope the voters in both cities remove the city council members from office over this by force if need be. This is plan old fascism and needs to be stomped out now.
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Yes but they different type of argument. That to was bullshit and illegal but even though I think boarders are all bs it is illegal to cross into another country without a passport or visa.
But stopping Women from going from one state to another when they are pregnant ( and lets be truthful here) even if not pregnant is totally unconstitutional and If the federal government doesn’t sue and put a halt to these supposed laws then we as a country are done and time for a revolution.
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The problem is that they’re ok with it. The walls are to keep people where they belong, some out, others in.
Okay sorry first I heard about this. WTF that should been shut down before the action phase. Maybe if the Biden administration could get their head out of Israel ass and focus more on whats happening here we can put a stop to this bullshit.
“It’s Biden’s fault Greg Abbott is a piece of shit!” - Literally you, right now, because you’re a fucking dink.
The federal government could and can step in anytime and put a stop to this bullshit. Hence them not doing so and not even bringing it up means they are complacent at most or just flat out ignoring it at the worst.
You think if the Democrats or hell Biden would want to win control of Congress next year they would bring it up and make bills to end to fascism. But instead all Biden talks about and cares about is more money to Israel and Ukraine.
Endless amount of billions helping those countries while ours is descending into fascism.
I’m a dipshit and even I know this is one of the dumbest ideas ever conceived.
Well in the state of Texas, once the idea is conceived, you have to carry it to term.
Then you give it a gun and see what happens.
So much for the marketplace of ideas.
So Texas is saying it’s illegal to transport people to another state if it’s for an abortion, but it’s encouraged to transport immigrants to another state if they’re undocumented?
What if it’s an undocumented immigrant that wants an abortion?
Making it illegal for women to travel is simply called Freedom LIBTARDS!
Time for another Underground Railroad!
