A woman protests the Texas abortion ban.(Tayfun Coskun / Getty)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
After the Supreme Court refused last week to block Texas’s extreme new abortion ban, Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a scathing dissent: “The Act is a breathtaking act of defiance—of the Constitution, of this Court’s precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas.”
And it was. SB 8, which bans all abortions just six weeks into pregnancy, effectively ended Roe v. Wade in the state. Because six weeks is before many people realize they’re pregnant, more than 85 percent of Texas abortions take place after that time. Thus, Republicans—who have spent the past year howling “my body, my choice” in response to covid-19 prevention strategies—are now throwing that out the window and advocating for tens of thousands of people to endure the trauma of forced birth.
However, the law is not only an act of breathtaking defiance. It’s also a product of careful planning.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. She served as editor of the magazine from 1995 to 2019.