Strict Texas abortion law goes into effect after SCOTUS inaction

[Josquius]

I sent a little story about how my girlfriend had an abortion I'm mighty sure because she was fat but now she aint and our mom says that she saw a doctor about womens problems.

[Syt]

What I'm struggling with is that normally, to take someone to court, you have to make a case that your rights were violated. With this Texas law, though, anybody can go to court even if they gave zero connections to the case. This feels very iffy and opens the door to denunciation and witch hunts (and not helped by a defendant not being able to recover legal costs if they win).

[Sheilbh]

What I'm struggling with is that normally, to take someone to court, you have to make a case that your rights were violated. With this Texas law, though, anybody can go to court even if they gave zero connections to the case. This feels very iffy and opens the door to denunciation and witch hunts (and not helped by a defendant not being able to recover legal costs if they win).

I think that's probably the plan - there may not be many successful cases but the legal costs will drive anyone helping provide abortion out of business.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It all reminds me of Sejanus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejanus and the paid informers that made Rome hell while Tiberius indulged himself on Capri 

To put the issue of abortion completely to one side for one moment, this law is still a complete abomination. It is a measure of how crazed the Republicans have become that they can even entertain such ideas.

[Oexmelin]

It's not even that they entertain the notion, but they enact it, and the institutions sanction it.

[Valmy]

Is there a plan in motion to evacuate people from Texas as it falls to religious fundamentalists?

Um if we evacuate them from Texas we will ensure the oppression of the people who remain.

I thought you wanted us to fight now you are eager to surrender a major battleground?

Let me remind you that the conservative majority has shrunk over the last decade and extreme actions like this help us to continue to turn the tide. But no, Oex is all: SURRENDER NOW!!!11

And it is not religious fundamentalists, at least they would be consistent and maybe even have some good ideas, it is culture warriors.

[Valmy]

It all reminds me of Sejanus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejanus and the paid informers that made Rome hell while Tiberius indulged himself on Capri 

To put the issue of abortion completely to one side for one moment, this law is still a complete abomination. It is a measure of how crazed the Republicans have become that they can even entertain such ideas.

They are fighting a war, a culture war. They need to show, every session, that they are progressing on the front against the foe. They will come up with something even more extreme next time if they are not stopped.

[Jacob]

They are fighting a war, a culture war. They need to show, every session, that they are progressing on the front against the foe. They will come up with something even more extreme next time if they are not stopped.

Agreed.

So Texas also put a bunch of voter suppression measures in. I assume they've done their homework and the measures will be effective... but it's just an assumption. What's the feeling in Texas? Is there anything resembling a chance that the GOP will face enough backlash and lose?

[Valmy]

They are fighting a war, a culture war. They need to show, every session, that they are progressing on the front against the foe. They will come up with something even more extreme next time if they are not stopped.

Agreed.

So Texas also put a bunch of voter suppression measures in. I assume they've done their homework and the measures will be effective... but it's just an assumption. What's the feeling in Texas? Is there anything resembling a chance that the GOP will face enough backlash and lose?

I don't know. There was a chance they could have lost in 2020 and they did not. The problem is that Texans are remarkably apolitical, they really do not care and are usually pretty uninformed. It is how a bunch of out-of-state culture warriors descended on our Republican Party and hijacked it from the Texas good ole boys who used to run it. They don't give a fuck about Texas man, they just noticed we were the biggest Republican state so it is where they can most advance their culture battle.

So in 2018 we saw a big shift to the Democrats. Will we see another in 2022 or 2024? I don't know, but we will if I have anything to say about it.

I have made it my business to so far to drive every single culture warrior out of local office in my county and town and have had considerable success so far. But even when it is just a conservative, and not a culture warrior at all, they will have to eventually agree to some pretty insane stuff, which I find frustrating.

[Berkut]

Frum had a good piece on this.

If nothing else, this disaster of a law is going to show once and for all how people feel about abortion rights. If Texans all give a collective shrug and let it go, then that tells us something for sure.

[Oexmelin]

Considering current levels of political apathy/resignation from most people except crazies, I wouldn't see this one instance as proof of a collective, well-informed opinion on anything.

[The Larch]

Republicans in six states rush to mimic Texas anti-abortion law

North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Florida eye similar measures to new Texas ban after six weeks

[Berkut]

Considering current levels of political apathy/resignation from most people except crazies, I wouldn't see this one instance as proof of a collective, well-informed opinion on anything.

Who said anything about anything well-informed?

[Tonitrus]

Frum had a good piece on this.

If nothing else, this disaster of a law is going to show once and for all how people feel about abortion rights. If Texans all give a collective shrug and let it go, then that tells us something for sure.

What I think the bill's architects might have been thinking, if given an unreasonable level of benefit of doubt, is that those who oppose abortions will only see the "abortion banned after six weeks!" headline, and never get into the minutia of the enforcement mechanism.  Allowing them to take the credit for passing an anti-abortion law, but never having to have any public enforcement officials get their hands dirty in carrying it out.

But because of the enforcement mechanism, those architects are either super villain-level evil, or inexcusably incompetent.  Unfortunately, the former is the more believable.  And, well, given the level of detail needed in crafting a law this way, really the only explanation.

[Zanza]

The invisible hand of the free market apparently decided not to host the denunciation website for now.