Linda Dunn
Back in the days of slavery, Charleston, South Carolina, required that slaves wear tags – small, usually copper, badges – to show they were allowed to move about freely with their master’s consent.
Texas, which had the largest concentration of slaves during the Civil War, appears posed for this to be a possible addition to their current efforts to end “trafficking” in the form of pregnant women attempting to flee the state for maternal health care that is legally available in other states and countries.
Calling them “anti-trafficking laws,” over 20 counties and cities have passed laws designed to create a blockade by forbidding travel on roads within these counties and cities for the purpose of seeking a legal abortion in another state or country.
One has to wonder how Texas and states that follow are going to enforce these laws. Will they set up checkpoints on these roads and require women drivers and passengers take a pregnancy test before being allowed to continue on the road? And what about pregnant women who commute to work daily on these roads with no intention of seeking an abortion? Do they get the modern day equivalent of a slave tag?
Under the old fugitive slave laws, once a slave escaped to a “free state,” anyone who assisted them could be charged with a crime. Will we have a national law forcing the same type of modern day penalties for those who assist women seeking legal abortions outside their state of residence?
Just how much are we willing to strip women of their rights so we can ensure that every pregnancy is carried to term or fails naturally? And how much are we willing to restrict the rights of women to receive life-saving care if they are carrying a “pre-born” that cannot survive outside the womb?
In Texas, Amanda Zurawski nearly died from sepsis after being denied an “abortion” when her water broke at 18 weeks. Ashley Brandt had to travel out of Texas to abort one of her twins so the other twin could survive.
The Texas law allowed no exception for nonviable pregnancies or as well as many other medical conditions.
This is not the loving pro-life movement that I remember from shortly after the Roe v. Wade decision made abortion a nationwide right. Instead, it feels more like an ugly backlash against decades of women having the same right to bodily autonomy as men.
The harsh reality is that only women can bring life into this world and thus only women are affected by these laws, which are too often written by legislators with little or no input from medical experts or the women likely to be affected by them.
Some of us have the misfortune of having reproductive systems that don’t work as perfectly as health textbooks from the 60s describe them. Some of us even spend small fortunes and years going through intensive and expensive medical procedures in an attempt to grow a family in an era where adoption has become a potentially more expensive and less accessible option.
Sometimes things go wrong, and especially so as more women with medical conditions literally put their lives at risk to bring life into the world.
And for this, we are punished by our state governing bodies, which refuse to accept the possibility that nature is imperfect and pregnancies can fail in many ways that can damage and/or kill women.
Why do the extremists who promote these laws fail to recognize that sometimes the pre-born is tragically incapable of surviving outside the womb? And will laws that put doctors’ careers at risk for failing to properly interpret ambiguously worded laws will cause many OB/GYNs to relocate to states with less Draconian laws such that women in these states are at greater risk during pregnancies?
But what’s even more troubling to many of us is that there is no exception when it’s literally a child whose life is less valued than the pre-born life implanted inside her by force.
Just look at what happened here in Indiana, where a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio traveled to our state for a (then) legal abortion. The doctor who performed this abortion has been demonized for doing what many of us consider the “right thing to do.”
Others may disagree, but I think we’ve gone too far in protecting the unborn at the expense of those already living, breathing, and clearly expressing their desire to own their own bodies.
This is quite frankly not pro-life. It is a form of slavery that we’re refusing to recognize as such, in which the state requires a pregnant woman (or a frightened young girl) to bear all the expenses and risks associated with pregnancy in a country with the highest maternal death rate among wealthy nations.
This is cruel. This is unjust. This is not how America should be and especially not for 10-year-old rape victims or families faced with some of the tragedies which women are now suffering in the state of Texas.
Does Indiana really want to follow Texas’ lead? And if so, where and how will we be able to obtain our slave tags?
A lifelong resident of Hancock County, Linda Dunn is an author and retired Department of Defense employee.
