Texas Says Forcing Women to Go Out of State for Abortions Is Stimulating Commerce

As states around the country roll back abortion rights, we’re hearing a lot of arguments explaining why forcing a person to carry a pregnancy against their will is actually a positive thing. In Mississippi, the attorney general claimed last week that overturning Roe v. Wade will “empower” women. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott insisted that the state’s no-exceptions abortion law will not require rape victims to give birth to their attacker’s child because he’s going to “eliminate” all rapists, an argument reminiscent of the one made by a Missouri congressman in 2012, in which he declared, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” All of them are ridiculous, all of them are insulting, and all of them engender the very specific response of, “What the f–k is wrong with you?” And speaking of which!

On Wednesday, Texas defended its Heartbeat Act by arguing—wait for it—that forcing pregnant people to travel hundreds of miles out of state to obtain a medical procedure that it has effectively banned is a good thing because it is “stimulating” interstate commerce. In a court filing, Attorney General Ken Paxton—the one who sued other states last year to overturn the 2020 election—said that contrary to the Justice Department’s claim that the federal government has the authority to block the law over interstate-commerce concerns, he’s seen news reports of women driving to Oklahoma and Kansas to seek abortions. Which, like a sociopath, he paints as a positive development. The DOJ doesn’t “cite any actual evidence that the Texas Heartbeat Act burdens interstate commerce,” Paxton said in the filing in federal court in Austin. “What evidence that does exist in the record suggests that, if anything, the Act is stimulating rather than obstructing interstate travel.” In other words, according to this guy, Oklahoma and Kansas and whatever other states people are fleeing to to end their pregnancies because they can’t do so locally owe Texas a debt of gratitude.

Not surprisingly, Paxton’s line of reasoning didn’t go over well with opponents of the law, which bans abortions at six weeks, a time before most people know they’re pregnant. “As thousands of pregnant Texans seeking essential, time-sensitive medical care are forced to flee the state in desperation, Texas is now claiming its blatantly unconstitutional abortion ban has ‘stimulated’ interstate travel,” ACLU staff attorney Julia Kaye said in a statement. “It is appalling that Texas is trying to capitalize on the catastrophe anti-abortion politicians created.”

Since Texas enacted the strictest abortion law in the U.S. this month, abortion providers are struggling to survive, with patients obtaining abortion pills through the mail, in addition to driving out of state. In court documents, an Oklahoma-based Planned Parenthood doctor drove one woman six hours alone, one way, because she was worried any companion could be sued under the absurd law that allows private citizens who “aid and abet” the procedure to be sued. According to Reuters, KT Volkova, a graduate student in central Texas was forced to take an abortion-inducing medication sent to them via mail after finding out they were nearly six weeks pregnant. “I would have preferred to have it in-clinic, with staff holding my hand, but I had to go through the entire process in my apartment alone,” Volkova said.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on abortion on Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez castigated an anti-abortion Texas ob-gyn who claimed that women who have been raped have tons of time to obtain an abortion under SB8. “Six weeks pregnant is two weeks late for one’s period,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “When you are raped, you don’t always know what happened to you. And I speak about this as a survivor. You are in so much shock.” The doctor, Ingrid Skop, insisted that “In the case of a rape, women generally know that they’ve been raped,” she said. Ocasio-Cortez responded that it was “unbelievable” that the Republican lawmakers on the committee would call a witness who would be so “irresponsible and hurtful to survivors across this country,” though, really, it’s actually entirely believable.

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Supreme Court justice swears he didn’t nullify Roe when he let Texas ban abortion at six weeks

Whatever lets you sleep at night, pal!

Joe Manchin cannot accept the idea of a society that takes care of people

It’s truly a bridge too far for the “moderate Democrat” who might as well be a Republican.

In break with Donald Trump, Joe Biden administration will make it harder to kill birds

Yes, if you weren’t aware, Trump had made it easier to kill defenseless animals because of course he did. Per The Washington Post:

The Biden administration finalized a rule Wednesday revoking a Trump administration policy that eased penalties for killing birds, restoring federal protections that had been in place for a century. The Trump administration’s reinterpretation of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act ranked as one of its most contentious wildlife policies. It relaxed legal penalties for energy companies, construction firms, and land developers that unintentionally killed birds through activities such as construction and oil drilling.

The new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule would restore protections under the bedrock environmental law, which prohibits the “take” of migratory bird species—regulatory-speak for hunting, killing, capturing, selling, or otherwise hurting them. Under President Donald Trump, officials had sought to exclude accidental deaths from the “take” definition, a move backed by the oil and gas industry.

Naturally, companies in the business of killing birds were upset about the reversal. Mallori Miller, vice president of government relations at the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the group was “disappointed” in the White House’s decision. “Repealing this provision will not have the desired outcome of additional conservation but will, in fact, financially harm businesses who have an incidental take through no fault of their own,” Miller said in an email to the Post. “This is not a case of punishing ‘bad actors’ but rather a situation where companies are set up for failure.”

Elsewhere!

Congress approves funding bill to avert shutdown hours before deadline (Washington Post)

Pelosi Pushes for Infrastructure Vote, Defying Liberals’ Threats (Bloomberg)

Lawmakers hammer Facebook for hiding how its products may hurt kids (Washington Post)

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is a ‘toxic’ workplace, some current and ex-workers claim in essay (CNBC)

18-hour days and panic attacks: Former Ozy staffers allege an abusive environment (CNN)

Arizona Audit Backers Turn on Each Other After Recount Flop (TDB)

Why vaccine mandates are largely succeeding (NYT)

For the first time since June, the number of projected COVID-19 deaths in the US is decreasing (CNN)

Sculpture of Humpty Dumpty on a toilet stolen in Wisconsin (UPI)

A squirrel hid thousands of walnuts under the hood of a man’s truck. It wasn’t the first time. (Washington Post)

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