Texas Heartbeat Act is wrong

Government has no place telling women what to do with their body

The+Texas+Heartbeat+Act+should+be+canceled.

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The Texas Heartbeat Act should be canceled.

The Texas government passed the Texas Heartbeat Act that bans women who are more than six weeks pregnant from getting an abortion.

The law also states that anyone who aids a woman who is six weeks or more pregnant to get an abortion can be sued.

The act has no exemptions for victims of rape or incest. In fact, the exemptions in this act are slim to none.

This Texan act contradicts the Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade that states that it is a constitutional right for a woman to get an abortion in the United States.

The law completely disregards women and their choice to do what they want with their body. It completely disrespects women who are raped, who are victims of  incest, who do not have the financial capabilities and who do not have the mental health to survive pregnancy and motherhood.

A woman may also simply not want to have a child. Women are not required to be mothers and some are not fit to be. Even after taking all the proper precautions, it is not unusual for a woman to still get pregnant.

Having a child is not simply getting pregnant one day and having a child the next; it is nine months of complete body, mind and soul transformation, not all positive. It is unfair to ask a woman to go through all of this for a child she might not even want. The effects on her body will continue to affect her long after she has the child.

The misogyny that lies in front of the government is deafening. There is still no male birth control encouraged, there is no “future” wife that has to consent to a young male getting a hysterectomy and there is no act that could potentially change a man’s body, mind and soul forever.

The counter argument that women should put their child up for adoption or foster care is almost laughable. The foster care and adoption system has been broken longer than this act has been considered.

Maybe if women knew the child they birthed would be going somewhere safe and healthy, they would be more likely to carry to full term. One would think a state that “cares” so much about children would not be ranked 43 in education.

There is also the other counter argument that women who get an abortion are murderers. The argument is that since the baby has a heartbeat and therefore is a human life, it means the women who abort them are murderers. If that is the case, then when doctors pull the plug on brain-dead patients, are they murderers?

Making this argument so black and white is not possible. If we are considering a six-week-old fetus as a person, does that mean child support should start at six weeks? Does that mean mothers who are carrying at six weeks cannot be deported because they are carrying a U.S. citizen?

The argument is not that simple.

Religious beliefs in this argument do not even need to be considered. There is a separation of church and state for a reason, and religious beliefs have no place in politics.

The idea that women will stop getting abortions is similar to the idea that people would stop drinking during Prohibition. Women will always find a way.

Cutting these family planning resources to women does more harm than good.

From a constitutional standpoint, the Texas government has no right to create a law opposing a federal law. That is the point of a federal law versus a state law.

The purpose of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution, and they already said that abortions are constitutionally allowed so now Texas is creating an act that goes against the Constitution.

Most women do not even know they are pregnant at six weeks. Imagine having no choice at all if you found out too late? Or imagine finding out at five weeks and only having one week to decide something that could change your entire life?

Woman’s body. Woman’s choice. Period.