Abortion policies have been discussed at nearly every legislative meeting here in Texas. There is a huge debate whether it is murder, due to the way the procedure is taken place. Abortion is the termination of a human pregnancy, due to an unwanted pregnancy or a health defect developing in the child. The procedure involves a surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and the placenta from the uterus. The Texas Abortion Laws requires all women seeking an abortion to have at least two visits to the abortion facility. Abortion may be the topic of debate, but the choice should be up to the mother. The men in the legislative are Pro-Life but to a certain extent, which is only when it comes to women.
Many people feel uncomfortable when it comes to abortion. Abortion is the termination of an unborn fetus due to some circumstances. When it comes to talking about abortion the topic of women’s rights come into discussion. The right of a woman making her own decision for her body. It always has to do with double standards and how the men are making the laws that stop a woman from deciding a lifelong choice. According to The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that at least, “fifty-five-thousand-two-hundred and eighty-seven abortions,” have taken place in Texas since 2015. In 2014 eleven percent of pregnancies ended in abortion. Slowly the abortion percentages are getting lower, but the topic is still up to debate on whether people are Pro-Life or Pro-Choice.
It is important to understand the difference between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. Pro-Life believes that all life is equal, and people that are Pro-life oppose abortion. They believe that an unborn fetus should have a right to live even if the woman cannot provide the right life style for the child. Pro-Choice, believes that it is the woman’s right to an abortion and the government should not have a say in what she can and cannot do.
There are several reasons why individuals choose to have an abortion and they are not just for themselves but also for the unborn child. Many people do not feel financially stable to bring a child into the world, so they have an abortion. According to Dawn Stacey, from the Verywell Health website, at least forty percent of people have an abortion due to not being financially prepared. Bringing a child into the world requires a lot of money and I personally believe if you bring a child into the world while not being financially prepared it will make thing difficult for not only the child but them family itself. The health percentages whether it’s for the health of the woman or the health of the fetus is twelve percent. Many people might ask why the woman just does not give the child up for adoption rather than having an abortion and the percentage of woman not wanting to give their child up for adoption is four percent. Woman believe that once a child is in the adoption system they will most likely stay there until a family chooses to take them into their home. A child should be brought into this world with someone there to love them as soon as they come out. It does not seem fair to put them in the system before they can find a loving family.
Where can women receive abortions? In Texas the Abortion Facility Licensing Act was first enacted in 1989 by the 71st Legislature. At first there were minimum standards for the Abortion Facility Licensing procedure that allowed them to either grant, deny, suspend, or even revoke the license. But since the House Bill 2 that was acted in 2013 many facilities in Texas have dropped due to the regulations on abortion. In Texas according to ACLUTX, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Houston, McAllen, and San Antonio have one or more abortion providers. Texas has the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States. The Supreme Court struck down some of Texas’s Anti-Abortion laws in 2016. These laws required doctors that provided abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, and another law required abortion clinics to make themselves into ambulatory surgical centers. The Texas government wanted to have mini hospitals that provided abortions. The Supreme Court in fact did shut those two laws down due to them having nothing to do with the health or safety of the person and the only purpose of the laws was to block “access to abortion.” Before the Supreme Court ruling those laws out many abortion facilities closed down leaving very few clinics to provide the abortions.
The state of Texas abortion law states that a woman must undergo an ultrasound at least twenty-four hours before obtaining an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. They also stated that the examiner must “show and describe” the image from the ultrasound to the woman. The men in the legislative that make the laws are doing everything they can to stop abortion. The decision is not hard for them because, of course, they are men. The fact that men have the right to say what a woman can and cannot do to her body is unfair to woman’s rights. As of May 1, 2018, Texas requires most women to receive state directed counseling that includes information designed to change her mind on having an abortion, including having to wait twenty-four hours before the procedure is going to happen. A woman had to consider many different alternatives before considering an abortion but since that’s what she choice the state is making it even more difficult than the decision she already made.
In 2017 Texas banned the safest and most common abortion procedure for the second trimester. Which forces doctors to use experimental procedures, or to just stop second trimester procedures. Many reproductive rights advocates attempted to challenge the laws as an act that stopped the right to an abortion.
Sometimes having an abortion is the best choice especially if the baby has a severe abnormality. Representative Matt Schaefer is considered a Pro-Life hero by passing a bill that stops women from having an abortion after twenty weeks of their pregnancy. He believes that children with life threatening disabilities should have the right to live. He introduced an amendment that would make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after twenty weeks, even if the fetus has a severe disability, not only causing pain to the mother but pain to the unborn child and the suffering life he will live in the future.
The men that make the bills consider themselves Pro-Life when it comes to abortion and that they care for the unborn child’s rights but when it comes to breastfeeding in public they shame the mothers for public indecency. When making a child, a man and a woman must be involved. If there are so many laws that require a woman to undergo so many steps before having an abortion it should only be fair for a man to have the same restrictions as women. For example, Representative Jessica Farrar’s introduced a bill called “Man’s Right to Know Act” that would, “require men to wait twenty-four hours after an ‘initial health care’ consultation to receive an elective vasectomy, colonoscopy or even get a Viagra prescription, and require men to undergo a digital rectal exam and an MRI.” Also, the doctor’s rights, involve the doctor having the right to “invoke their personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs” which allows them to refuse to perform a vasectomy, colonoscopy, or to write a prescription for Viagra. The Doctors rights were made to mimic the proposed Senate Bill 25, which allows doctors to withhold medical information about fetal abnormalities if they believe a woman will consider an abortion. The Bill, “Man’s Right to Know Act,” was proposed by a female implying double standards to the “Woman’s Right to Know Act,” that requires the woman to get counseling and an ultrasound of the fetus.
There are so many regulations when it comes to females it should only be fair if a man had regulations when it comes to masturbation. Sperm plays a major role in reproducing a child, so the male representatives should also consider being Pro-Life when it comes to masturbation. Female Representative Jessica Farrar proposed a bill that would fine men up to one-hundred dollars each time he masturbates. When she made her proposal she never had the intention for it to be passed, she just wanted to make a point that men should be help to the same qualifications when it comes to the reproduction of a child. Her proposal states that the masturbatory emissions created in health or medical facilities will be “stored for the purposes of conception for a current or future wife.” If semen is not used to create a pregnancy, then it should be considered a waste of a life, because that semen could have been used to create a child and the child had no say in the matter.
When it comes to abortion everyone has their own opinions. The men in the legislative should begin to consider what is fair for everyone. If the men are able to make laws about the decision a woman wants to make, then a woman should be allowed to make laws that resemble the same laws made for woman but for men. When are they going to realize that men also play a role in the process if reproducing a child and not only women should be stopped from stopping the life of an unborn child. Although the state cannot prohibit abortions they can and did make restrictions on abortion.
Till this day Texas Law makers are making it harder and harder for clinics and women seeking an abortion.
