Why Does The Right Have Such Trouble With Rights?

 Can you hear the sounds of marching in the streets? 

No? 

That could be because there aren't any. Or at least not as many as there ought to be. The United States Supreme Court just upheld the Texas ban on abortion. But they did allow clinics to sue over it. This second piece is what is known in legal circles as a "pyrrhic victory." Currently in the Lone Star state, abortion is illegal after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo. That’s around six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. 

But feel free to grab yourself a lawyer and go fight it in court. After the highest court in the land has already approved this draconian measure. 

In the past couple paragraphs, I have evoked a different age:  Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose triumph against the Romans in the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC destroyed much of his forces, forcing the end of his campaign, and Draco, also called Drako or Drakon,  who was the first recorded legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. These examples come to us from a different time, when legislators wore togas and women were property while the togas went around figuring things out for them. 

That was a very long time ago. However, I encourage you to take a moment to try and pick out the women in the grotesquely staged photo of the Republican lawmakers crowded around Governor Greg Abbot's desk after he signed the bill into law. It's a pretty small group. Want to find a person of color? Look elsewhere. They are not in the room. And since this law will impact primarily women, and disproportionately women of color, this makes me wonder about representative democracy. 

In a poll of adult Texans, the new law had forty-seven percent approval, compared to forty-seven percent who disapproved. A pretty slim margin, but only thirty-nine percent of women supported it. You know, the ones who will be affected by this legislation. They didn't give a breakdown for teenaged mothers or victims of rape or incest. 

Keeping in mind this is Texas, where no one can tell you to wear a mask during a global pandemic. But they are completely comfortable controlling the reproductive rights of their women. If you don't like them rules, then lawyer up, pardner. 

Or take to the streets.