Texas Oh Texas UPDATE!
Okay, so the Supreme Court wanted to see how Texas’ new highly restrictive abortions law under HB2 is keeping women from having abortions.
Texas had the data months ago. So, the proper procedure would be to get a big ole envelope, print out the data, put it in the envelope, address it to the Supreme Court of the United Damn States of America, slap some stamps on that sucker and give it to the mailman.
Texas did all except the last.
The data sits in a desk drawer somewhere in the bowels of Greg Abbott’s secret survivalist bunker next to his abridged copy of the Constitution and a stack of the souls of people denied health care in Texas.
… when staffers at the state Department of Health Services finished their work and prepared to release the data, the process stalled after the numbers were submitted to the department’s legal department for final approval, the source said. Internal emails provided to The Texas Tribune show agency workers were then told the numbers were not ready to be released.
Since then, the agency has responded to requests for the numbers from reporters and interested parties by saying they have not been finalized.
Luckily, Texas has a few remaining good guys left who have’t been swallowed up by the religious rantings of white men who have all their religion in their wives’ names.
While the employee did not provide details about the 2014 statistics, the employee indicated there was a drop in every single type of procedure, including a significant drop in medication abortion, a procedure used to end early pregnancies. (Abortion providers have said drug-induced abortions dropped dramatically under HB 2 because of stricter requirements.)
The state of Texas, through its Attorney General, felony-indicted and petty thief Ken Paxton, says we don’t have those numbers for the Supremes to review.
Thelma is taking bets that the numbers will be released the day after the Supreme Court decision.
Because it’s Texas, dammit.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
UPDATE: Damn, Boys! It did you not one bit of good to sell your soul to the devil and lie, lie, lie.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down one of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women’s groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state’s clinics to shut down.
Supreme Court just ruled 5-3 striking down TX abortion law.
1http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-27/texas-abortion-limits-struck-down-by-u-s-supreme-court
Release the data anyway. We need to spike any future efforts along these lines because these idiots will try again…and again.
2If you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one. Hooray for the Supremes!!!! Now let these heinous restrictions drop like rocks in the other repressive states!
3Yahoo! Women finally win a round!!
4I’m sure Kennedy took into account the state’s attempt to hide facts. Do you think I could market my amazing product the “Abbott Sucks” vacuum system”
5Since when has A-Butt been bound by the constitution or Scotus?
6When will Paxton finally go to trial? He is a nasty man.
7Congratulations ladies!
And, a huge Bronx Cheer to A-butt, Paxton and all the state Attorney Generals who pander to the ‘religious’ whims of the few, while denying health care screening to the many. You lost and you lost big. Heed what Justice Kennedy said about your transparent bullsh!t arguments. When you attempt to fool everyone, yet fool no one, that leaves YOU as the fool.
Sam in San Antonio, let me guess the ‘features’ of the “Abbott Sucks” vacuum system” – it rips up the pavement from your driveway and leaves dirt.
8At last, some good news in the morning.
9So they are going to trust women to think for them self’s?
10And have some control over their own body’s? What will old men like Abbott do with all of that free time? I do have a few suggestions. But mama will wash my mouth out if I say them out loud.
So…… Texas may lose it’s “Keep ’em pregnant, Keep ’em barefoot…and Keep ’em at home”. WE’RE NO 1 …………title????
Yea!
11Odd that the rabid anti-abortion group is not also rabidly pro-contraceptive. After all, no woman who wasn’t pregnant has ever had an abortion.
It’s almost as though this crew is really just interested in controlling women’s sex lives and “punishing” them with a baby if they misbehave (i.e., enjoy having sex for recreation and not just procreation).
Just think what the Court can do if we get one new liberal Justice.
12And the 3 fools on the SCOTUS who dug in their heels for the dark side on “procedural grounds” were Thomas, Alito and Roberts. Thank goodness Kennedy and Breyer saw the light
13and joined forces with the women of SCOTUS.
I absolutely adore the notorious RGB – her words:
The 2013 Texas law that the court struck down would have required all abortions to take place in ambulatory surgical centers, or mini-hospitals, instead of regular clinics. Ginsburg kept her argument simple: Abortions are statistically safer than many simpler medical procedures, including tonsillectomies, colonoscopies, in-office dental surgery and childbirth — but Texas does not subject those procedures to the same onerous requirements.
“Given those realities, it is beyond rational belief that H.B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law ‘would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions,’ Ginsburg wrote. “When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners … at great risk to their health and safety.”
14LynnN – no almost about it! Getting “in trouble” is PUNISHMENT for not being a “nice girl” and you need that kid to remind you every day of your life that you are a bad little
15sl-t. They’d bring back scarlet letters if they could. This is ALL about curtailing sexual activity, and it’s a dumber than dirt plan cuz IT DOES NOT WORK!!
Texas is still peddling the we did it to protect women’s health bs.
16It’s nice to also see the 5th circuit appeals court get a smack down too!
17With the death of Scalia, the RATS of SCROTUS could be the RAT (singular), but there are three of them. Time to scramble that acronym – TAR. Think of them as the TAR babies of justice.
TAR = Tap dancing Anachronistic Rodents. While I eagerly await the written opinion of Justice Kennedy, I doubt it will be the serious smack down that A-butt and his ilk deserve. But for sheer comedic value and the insight into the minds of rodents, the words of Thomas, Alito and Roberts should be comedy gold. Samantha Bee, take them down.
18It’s a refreshing surprise whenever facts and consideration for other people win over religious dogma and punishment for those who don’t look, act, and think exactly the way somebody thinks they should. I needed some good news today– thank you, 5/8 of SCOTUS, and sod off, you other guys.
A lot of women, and men who care about them, can breathe a sigh of relief.
19Breyer wrote the majority opinion with some additional stuff from Notorious RBG.
20Yeah, you have to just imagine the hand wringing, and clawing their own eyeballs out that the Bachmanns and Falwells are doing today……Well, you don’t HAVE to, but it sure is fun. It’s like my ladie’s mom used to say. These people’s concern for innocent lives begins at conception and ends at birth.
21Ever try to eat lunch, read this decision, and chortle at the same time? Totally very tricky!!!!
22Is it just me wondering why all these years the condemnation of unwanted pregnancies and abortions center on the woman? Why isn’t the sperm provider treated with equal disdain socially and financially? Could it be that the tormentors just happen to be male betting most of them sowed their wild oats earlier and probably still are?
23Why are they allowed to assume the authority without the attendant responsibility for the birth of any force-birthed child thru majority?
I also notice that this question is not being asked much less dealt with;
why is there a necessity for abortion in the first place; ie, causation of the condition in the first place?
I was instant messaging on-line with my friend in MO and I could hear the “roar of the crowd” on MSNBC, so I went out in the living room to see what the ruckus was all about! There was the announcement of this smack down and there was Hillary and Elizabeth in Cincinnati getting ready to do their own Drumpf smack down!!
24It was all so very glorious!!
Oh, how I would love to see Hill and Liz on the same ticket!!! They are the dynamic duo, for sure!!
SCOTUS sez: We have the right to choose… and so do women.
Suck it, Texassholes!
25Keep Abortion Safe, Legal, and RARE.
Hurrah for the SCOTUS
26The Texass Secessionist movement kicks into hyperdrive in 4..3..2..1…
The Talibangelicals will be in a frenzy by nightfall too.
Sam in SA, that ‘Abutt Sucks’ vacuum would be highly restricted/regulated, like the worst pesticides. It’s just not safe for average consumer use. Needs somebody like Tom ‘Cockroach’ DeLay to operate it.
27My thinking on Rethuglican abortion laws. They want another unwanted generation of children to fight some future war they want. If any of you have read Freakanomics there is a corilation in the Roe vs Wade decision and the falling crime rate 20 years later.
28Van59: The answer you seek is very simple. In this “society” we live in, if a man has 10 different partners in a month he is a “stud”. If a woman has 10 different partners in a month she is a “slut”.
Men can and have been huge pigs. We need to admit that about our gender. When men realize just how little of them is required for the continuation of human life it might sober them up. Man up or zip it up.
29Has Trump provided any inane input on this?
30LynnN and JAK, you’re both on the right track–men are studs, women are sluts–but an interesting collection of those men seem okay with the women (or girls, or boys) when they’re feeling a bit randy and the little woman isn’t watching.
31JAKvirginia, permit me to add to your excellent response to my question.
32Without a causitive explanation as to why Studs vs Sluts (SS – I wonder -any resemblance?) exists, changes to our systemic problem will be more difficult to implement; eg, changing out those who make the rules. Even then there will always be those who refuse to let any facts confuse them.
But will you consider that women, if given the same power as men, would be quite like them when it comes to good guy vs bad guy?
van59, men who cause unwanted pregnancies don’t have the problems and social stigma that the women do, but some of them have complained about being forced to pay child support for children they didn’t want if the woman chooses not to abort. And others have complained that they get no say if the woman does decide to abort. (“Well, if you can carry it, go ahead” would be my response to that one.)
33Van59: “But will you consider that women…”.
As to your question — No. If we are to play some roundtable discussion of possibilities, well then, anything is possible. But, no.
But my life experience has shown women being far less “power-hungry” than men. But if they are equal to men in that way, most often their motivations are very different. Women tend to be goal-oriented where most men are esteem-oriented; women want to get things done while men want to appear to be getting things done.
Yes… you can say that’s sexist, but it’s what I’ve witnessed in 40+ years of working with both sexes in government and the private sector in low-level and high-level positons. One woman I’m remembering was head of corporate communications for MCI. (Remember them?) Everybody feared her. Not me. She could be brusque and curt but was always clear. When you are a graphic designer trying to make tight deadlines THAT is the leadership you want, not some idiot peacock who can’t or won’t make decisions.
I will work with a competent women before I’ll work with some grandstanding man. Anyday of the week.
34Rhea and JAKvirginia and others, at the risk of insulting you-all, my intent was rhetorical; ie, state the obvious in question format to elicit a reaction. In this case, to get deeper into the meat of the problem that ain’t gonna go away doing the deja-vu dance all over again.
35Males have for the most part been making the rules. Wouldn’t taking some of that power away giving it to females for a more balanced system possibly leading to better solutions of this problem? Also, see above caveat.
So, are we trying to treat a symptom as if it is the causative factor? If so, IMO, this will only work by accident.
Again, I apologize to anyone here that feel my words might be belittling to them.
There is no feasible way for the government to make contraceptive health care choices without going all political about it.
We saw what a swell job the government did intervening in the Terri Schiavo case. Medical issues were forgotten as the WingNuts tried to use government to enforce their morality. It was a stinkin’ mess and ended the way it had end after years of pointless nastiness and divisiveness.
I cringe at late-term abortions if the fetus is healthy, but even then I would leave the decision to woman and her doctor(s) because government intervention has nothing to do with medicine.
36So your governor admitted that he is a big fat liar…..the objective was “to protect innocent life”. Apparently he does not think expectant mothers are “innocent life”….to improve women’s healthcare…my ass.
37Van59: No need to apologize. We just had a civil discussion. I take no offense and I’m certain others feel the same. Your points are well worth discussing now and in the future. Thank you for your thoughts. And keep paricipating here. Please.
38I have often proposed penalties for male sexual misbehavior.
For example, child molesters and rapists are chemically castrated for the first offense, surgically castrated for the second.
Deadbeat dads will be sentenced to forced labor, with all proceeds going to child support.
No excuses for impregnations. If you think she’s not really on birth control, use a condom or don’t have sex. Simple.
Mandatory DNA tests for parentage.
There’s more, but that’s the gist of it.
39Debbo… you’re being too kind to child molesters and rapists. There are few “Don’t Ever” rules in our society. The two cases above are don’t evers. Dislike me if you want, but my punishment would be more far-reaching. Sorry, but I’ve seen the pain and damage…
40Go for it JAKvirginia. I have no problem with harsher penalties.
41