As challenger Beto O’Rourke emphasizes his pro-choice position and as he continues to draw big crowds in deep red areas of Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott suddenly wants people to think he’s not so pro-forced birth after all.
In the past, Abbott justified his no-exceptions abortion ban by saying he’d eliminate rape in Texas. Now, he implicitly acknowledges that's not happening and he has a – pardon the pun – Plan B.
From The Dallas Morning News:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that although the state’s abortion ban makes no exception for rape or incest, victims of these crimes can take emergency contraception and call the police.
“We want to support those victims, but also those victims can access health care immediately, as well as to report it,” Abbott said during a segment that will air Sunday on Lone Star Politics, a show produced by KXAS-TV (NBC 5) and The Dallas Morning News. “By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent a pregnancy from occurring in the first place. With regard to reporting it to law enforcement, that will ensure that the rapist will be arrested and prosecuted.”
If any Texan woman feels very reassured by this, well don’t be.
First of all, Plan B is only effective up to 72 hours after unprotected sex. And even then, it is less effective than contraception. Many women who suffer rape or incest don’t immediately realize they could become pregnant, The Dallas Morning News notes. Also, Texas’ law may frighten some doctors away from discussing Plan B with their patients.
Meanwhile, Abbott is trying to sell his forced-birth law as something that’s pro-women.
More from The Dallas Morning News:
“Texas is leading the way with regard to alternatives for abortion,” Abbott said Thursday. “It’s an all-time record high and it’s grown 800% since I’ve been governor.”
He continued: “We want to make adoptions easier and cheaper. We’ve added funding for things like prenatal care, postpartum care for women. The Women’s Health program today has more money in it than ever before and Texas leads the nation with regard to crisis pregnancy centers that will provide care and treatment for pregnant women, so Texas is stepping up and doing more than any state to help out pregnant women.”
But really, it’s just a way of sugarcoating the agony – or worse – of forced pregnancies:
According to a recent study by Parkland Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center, Texas abortion restrictions required doctors to delay abortions until women developed complications that posed an “immediate threat” to their lives. The doctors estimated the wait made women twice as likely to suffer serious health problems, such as infections or the need for a blood transfusion.
As for O’Rourke, he says the Texas abortion ban is “uniting Texans, Republicans, Democrats, independents, unlike any issue I’ve seen before and I’ve lived here my entire life.”
