Abortion rights—and the lives and future of women—are in a state of emergency. Nowhere is this more concentrated than in Texas
In 2011 there were 46 abortion clinics in Texas; if all the current
restrictions go into effect as scheduled, by September 1st of 2014 there
will be only 6 clinics remaining. Texas is over 800 miles wide and has
over 26 million residents. Women who cannot access safe, legal abortions
have their lives foreclosed when they are forced to have children
against their will. Or, they risk their lives, die, or go to prison for
attempting to self-induce abortions.
Sendoff for the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, summer 2013, NYC.
Women who live in poverty, especially immigrant women and others in
the Rio Grande Valley along the Mexican border, have been hit the
hardest. Unable to come up with the money to travel hours to the nearest
clinic and/or unable to travel through the immigration checkpoints for
lack of “legal” documents, these women are trapped. On September 1st, if
a medically unnecessary law designed to close abortion clinics goes
into effect, the nearest clinic will be closed and these women will have
to travel approximately 300 miles to the next nearest clinic.
It is immoral to abandon the women of Texas. It is also delusional to
think that these attacks will not spread to the rest of the country if
they are not stopped there. In reality, Texas is a concentration of the
nationwide war on women. 6 states have only one abortion clinic. 203
laws restricting abortion have been passed nationwide since 2011. 8
doctors and clinic workers have been murdered by anti-abortion violence,
and in March 2014 a clinic was so severely vandalized in Montana that
it was forced to close. Everywhere, women who seek abortions are
harassed, shamed, humiliated and terrorized.
Forced Motherhood Is Female Enslavement!
Abortion Providers Are Heroes!
Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!
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