There is a bomb in Gilead: SCOTUS advances Texas' mission to become real-life Handmaid's Tale

 

It's September, and a brutally restrictive abortion law is just the tip of the iceberg as the Christo-fascists advance their regressive agenda. Also taking effect September 1 are laws making it far easier to brandish a gun anywhere (whether or not one has a license or any sort of gun safety training), and voter legislation designed to disenfranchise people of color and anyone else likely to vote Democratic. But as Texas goes, so goes the nation, so don't kid yourself that this is just Lone Star lunacy.

In Margaret Atwood's classic 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale (which has also been adapted as a movie, a radio presentation, a stage play and now an ongoing streaming series), much of the continental United States has been taken over by a totalitarian, theocratic regime. A big chunk of the Northeast portion of the former US has become the Republic of Gilead, and in Gilead, women are relegated to subordinate roles; they are not allowed to read, vote, have a job, or own possessions... and forget anything remotely resembling reproductive freedom. Women known as Handmaids are forced to have sex with their "Commanders" in order to provide children for them and the infertile Wives.

The Handmaid's Tale has been invoked every time there has been a setback in abortion rights in the United States, with pro-choice advocates warning that the U.S. is becoming more and more like the fictional Gilead. All too often life does indeed imitate art: as of today -- September 1, 2021 -- Texas seems to be the front runner in the race to transform into Gilead. The Supreme Court of the United States has opted to let an oppressive state law take effect that bans all abortions after six weeks -- long before many women even know they are pregnant -- because that has been decreed the time when a fetal heartbeat can be detected by a doctor. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

Even more alarming, the bill will allow private citizens to sue anyone involved in helping a woman get an abortion past six weeks, without having to demonstrate any personal connection whatsoever to the woman or the situation.

In other words, there is a bomb in Gilead* -- and unless it is defused, it’s going to blow Roe v Wade, the 1973 SCOTUS decision that legalized abortion nationwide, to smithereens. From Politico:

Beyond outlawing abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the Texas law, signed in May, would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks, such as a person who drives a pregnant person to the clinic. Individuals found to have violated the law would have to pay $10,000 to the person who successfully brings such a suit — a bounty abortion rights advocates warn will encourage harassment, intimidation and vigilantism.

To say the least. For a more detailed look at the probable effects of the new law, see this Axios summary.

This forced-birth legislation has been brought to you by the same thugs who have been screaming that mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates are government overreach and a dangerous threat to medical privacy and individual freedom. Indeed, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (who tested positive himself for COVID recently) has been at the forefront of the rethuglican movement to quash even the most basic COVID safety measures. Earlier in the summer he issued an executive order banning all mask mandates (though the ban is being fought on several fronts), and in late August he performed the same dark magic on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, regardless of whether the vaccines in question have full FDA approval. Clearly, in the eyes of the GQP, principles of freedom and privacy only apply to those on the "right" side of the culture wars.

Advocacy media such as Ms. Magazine have pointed to the option of ordering abortion pills online. But given the outrageous overreach of the Texas law, it'll be only a matter of time before the forced-birth fascists find a way to prosecute sellers and buyers. In fact they're already working on it, according to the Politico article I linked to above (here's that link again):

And while abortion rights advocates have touted the recent ability to dispense abortion pills via telemedicine and by mail as a way for people in conservative states to evade mounting restrictions on the procedure, the state on Tuesday also sent a ban on mail delivery of the pills to the governor's desk.

So there's that.

Pistol-packin' putzes
If the forced-birth law were the only regressive measure to worry about in Texas it would be bad enough, but wait... there's more! Those "pro-life" bounty hunters and vigilantes will no doubt find it much easier to intimidate pregnant people and healthcare providers with weapons, since a slew of new gun laws are in effect in Texas as of September 1. There'll be guns aplenty -- well, in Texas there always were, but now there will be even more, and now you don't even need special training or licensing in order to openly tote a firearm just about anywhere. All you need is a "clean record" (whatever that means, exactly). The new pile of gun laws are a reflection of Guv'ner Greg Abbott's mission to make Texas a "Second Amendment sanctuary state."

It's not that there wasn't a valiant effort to put the reins on this firearms frenzy. Even (or especially) law enforcement agencies, normally pretty conservative, have spoken out against "constitutional carry," but to no avail. From the Houston Public Media piece I linked to in the previous paragraph:

Many Democratic leaders and gun safety advocates hoped the 2021 session would result in more laws aimed at gun violence prevention. It was the first time lawmakers convened since the 2019 shootings in El Paso and Odessa.

In the aftermath of those attacks, some of the state's top Republican leaders — including Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — signaled an openness to change and voiced concerns about private, "stranger-to-stranger" gun sales that don't require background checks.

However, legislation aimed at closing the background check loophole didn't make it out of session, and most bills filed in response to the mass shootings never landed on the governor's desk.

Of course they didn't. Gun safety laws with teeth would be a stain on the long, proud tradition of Texas exceptionalism (Texceptionalism?).

Taking the battle to the ballot box
Okay... so at least maybe there's a chance of voting some of the forced-birth, firearms-fancying fascists out of office, right? Don't count on it; the rethuglicans have also been hard at work on new voter suppression legislation in Texas, and so far they've been successful. Under the guise of "election integrity," and despite stalwart Texas Democratic legislators who tried to stop it, the rethuglicans are doing absolutely everything they can to disenfranchise people of color and anyone else who is likely to vote Democratic. Their motives couldn't be more transparent.

[Texas] Republicans’ clear goal is to prevent the state’s changing demographics from leading to a shift in political power for as long as possible. The GOP doesn’t need to have the support of a majority of the state’s population if it skews the composition of the electorate to win a majority of votes. As the state becomes younger, more diverse, and more Democratic, power remains concentrated in the hands of politicians who represent constituencies that are whiter, older, more rural, and more conservative than the state as a whole...

...That’s why the new law surgically targets the voting methods that proved most popular among voters of color in large urban areas like Houston’s Harris County in 2020.

It eliminates innovative voting methods set up by Harris County, such as drive-thru voting and extended early voting hours, that were disproportionately used by voters of color during the presidential election.

After mail voting increased across the country in 2020 among communities of color, who favored Joe Biden, the law bans mail ballot drop boxes and makes it a felony for election officials to distribute unsolicited absentee ballot applications.

As well, the law significantly expands access for partisan poll watchers, giving them "free movement" inside a polling place while subjecting election workers to criminal penalties for removing them. Viewed in the context of GOP operatives having pledged to recruit an "army" of poll watchers in Black and Latino neighborhoods in Houston, the motive behind this provision of the law is painfully clear.

In addition to all of that, the law requires monthly "citizenship check" of voter rolls, which is very likely to lead to unfounded voter purges -- like a failed 2019 attempt to delete the registrations of 100,000 overwhelmingly Latino voters, whom the state claimed were noncitizens but turned out to be naturalized US citizens.

If you want to know more about the astounding sweep of new legislation that took effect in Texas September 1, here's a little something straight from the horse's ass. It's a press release on the gov.texas.gov web site listing the highlights of the legislature's accomplishments and providing a link to a full list of new laws. You'll notice, of course, quite a few laws that provide special protection to guns and gun manufacturers and gun nuts, and several protecting fetuses (including a separate bill that will outlaw all abortion in Texas "after Roe v Wade is overturned" (not if, but after).

There's also a law prohibiting "camping in public spaces," offering reinforcement to the time-honored practice of crapping on homeless people, and there are several laws to punish cities that try to "defund the police." And of course there's a law banning the teaching of "critical race theory," though almost none of the pearl clutchers who are so adamantly against it have any idea what CRT actually is. If you click on the link to the complete list, you'll immediately see that the exact number of bills is... 666. Mark of the Beast, anyone?

All is not lost... not yet, anyway.
Clearly the Texas Taliban, or Christian Caliphate if you prefer, is fighting fiercely to maintain supremacy in the Lone Star State. What's sad is that progressives in other states seem hell-bent on abandoning us. Fortunately many others are supporting us in the fight to bring Texas into the twenty-first century, recognizing that, as one person on a thread I've been following on Twitter wrote, "Texas is the canary in the coal mine, not some external enemy. California could be next (hello. recall?) Economic vitality has turned Texas into an essentially purple state. We need to overcome voter suppression. Help turn Texas blue!!"

Yeah, what that person said.

I haven't given up on everything yet, or really on anything. I'm plenty angry about what's happening in my state, but I still have enough faith in the system to believe that people who care about progress and justice and equality can yet make a difference. The Christo-fascists haven't completely won yet, and there's still a chance of preventing Texas and the rest of the nation from turning into Gilead. There are still opportunities to defuse the (metaphorical) bomb -- or, alternatively, to ensure that it (metaphorically) blows up in the faces of those who set it -- and by that, of course, I simply mean that we must ensure that the architects of the reprehensible laws pay politically. In states like Texas, defeating this shrill minority is very much an uphill battle, but it's also very much a battle worth fighting.
* Apologies to those who are fans of the old hymn.

PS added on Sept. 2, 2021: President Biden has spoken out against the draconian Texas abortion law.

PPS added on Sept. 3, 2021: In this Houston Press piece, Jef Rouner nails it re the true origins of the "pro-life" movement in America, as well as the decades of gaslighting by republicans about everything from abortion to race to election fraud.

PPPS added on Sept. 7, 2021: Here's Jef again, explaining why it's wrong to invoke the Taliban when discussing this whole Texmess, since this is all on "Christians." He's right, of course. (Mea culpa.)