Three maddening hot issues in
Texas:
1. Their lousy voting restrictions bill (first post
below).
2. Their lousy bill on mandating teaching any opposing
views on the Holocaust (second post below).
3. Then their lousy new Abortion law (last post below).
The
new Texas voting law: New restrictions following 2020 and tied to Trump’s
sustained “Big Lie” rage and ranting:
Though delayed by Democratic quorum breaks, Texas has officially joined the slate of Republican states that have enacted new voting restrictions following the 2020 election.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed
into law Senate
Bill 1, sweeping legislation that further tightens state election laws and
constrains local control of elections by limiting counties’ ability to expand
voting options. The governor’s signature ends months of legislative clashes and
standoffs during which Democrats — propelled by concerns that the legislation
raises new barriers for marginalized voters — forced Republicans into two extra
legislative sessions.
Popularly known as SB 1, it is set to take effect three months after the special legislative session, in time for the 2022 primary elections.
But it could still be caught up in the federal courts. Abbott’s signature was both preceded and followed by a flurry of legal challenges that generally argue that the law will disproportionately harm voters of color and voters with disabilities.
On top
of two previously-filed Federal lawsuits, three new lawsuits, including one in
state district court, were filed shortly after it became law.
While SB 1 makes some changes that could expand access — namely increasing early voting hours in smaller, mostly Republican counties — the new law otherwise restricts how and when voters cast ballots.
It specifically targets voting initiatives used by diverse, Democratic Harris County, the state’s most populous, by banning overnight early voting hours and drive-thru voting — both of which proved popular among voters of color last year.
The new
law also will ratchet up voting-by-mail rules in a state where the option is
already significantly limited, give partisan poll watchers increased autonomy
inside polling places by granting them free movement, and set new rules — and
criminal penalties — for voter assistance. It also makes it a state jail felony
for local election officials to proactively distribute applications for mail-in
ballots, even if they are providing them to voters who automatically qualify to
vote by mail or groups helping get out the vote.
The Holocaust teaching mandate:
SOUTHLAKE,
TX (AP) — A Texas school district administrator told teachers that if
they have books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they should also have
books that offer “opposing or other viewpoints on the subject.
Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and
instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, which is
in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, issued the directive last week during a training
session about which books teachers can have in their classroom libraries. A
staff member secretly made an audio recording of the training session and
shared it with NBC News which broke the story.
In the recording, Peddy told the teachers to remember the Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial issues.”
She then said: “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
One teacher in the background on audio can be heard asking: “What
is the opposing view of the Holocaust?”
The Texas harsh 6-week abortion law:
The Texas 6-week abortion ban is under AMA and 19 other medical groups intense fire and reported on here from Newsweek with this headline:
“AMA & 19 Other Medical Orgs File Friend of the Court Brief
Decrying Texas Abortion Law”
More than a dozen of the United States top medical
organizations have filed an amicus brief in Texas' Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals arguing that the controversial Texas abortion law (SB-8) undermines
medical ethics. The American Medical Association (AMA) is heading the court
filing denouncing the state's ban on abortions once fetal cardiac activity is
detected — usually around six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most people
even know they're pregnant.
AMA President Gerald
E. Harmon, M.D. told Newsweek: “The American Medical Association stands
firmly against government interference in the clinical exam room, particularly
laws and regulations like Texas SB 8 that criminalize the practice of medicine,
obstruct the delivery of evidence-based care, and undermine the patient-physician
relationship. The deeply inequitable impact that this law will have on
already-marginalized patients' access to reproductive health care is dangerous
and unconstitutional. We must immediately stop this unnecessary government
overreach into physicians' clinical judgment – or risk irreparable harm to the
health of our patients in Texas and the overall health of the nation.”
In the amicus brief — AKA: “Friend of the Court” filing that allows entities like businesses or nonprofits to take one side in a case — a number of medical organizations wrote: “The abortion law undermines longstanding principles of medical ethics and intrudes into the patient-clinician relationship.”
Nineteen medical societies: including the American College
of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the
Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine are named.
“They all believe that the Texas abortion ban causes grave
harm to patients and public health and is contrary to principles of medical
ethics.”
They argued that the Texas bill (SB 8) is also contrary to
patient health and well-settled law, and that the law's passage threatens the
health and well-being of pregnant patients by “barring their access to a safe
and essential component of reproductive health care, and in doing so, it
disproportionately harms the most marginalized people in Texas — communities of
color, people with low incomes, and those living in rural areas.”
The 34-page court filing also criticized the bill's
enforcement mechanism, which relies on private citizens suing those who have assisted women in getting
abortions. It argued this means clinicians are potentially faced with personal
and professional liability if they “provide care consistent with their best
medical judgment, scientific evidence, moral, and ethical duty.”
Furthermore, the organizations stated that by deputizing members of the community, the patient-clinician relationship is intruded upon based on allegations. They added that this will lead to a number of harassing lawsuits that favor the plaintiffs in court and hold anyone inside a woman's support network liable.
They also argued that the bill will “exacerbate the
already perilous shortage of women's health care providers as they're also likely
to be harassed with lawsuits, and as a result, while the bill may be intended
to prevent abortions, it will impact other forms of women's health and
reproductive health care.”
Related
article from a reputable conservative.
And,
this historical article reminder of a rational Texas vaccine mandate vs. today for
COVID.
My 2 Cents: Excellent
presentation from the AMA and the others. Now, for the USSC: Are you paying attention to
the women of America or not?
That is the only question at
stake, isn’t it?
To ignore sound medical
science and replace that with raw politics – is not justice logical, rational,
or otherwise by any standard and certainly is not what America is, has been, or
should stand for.
Now we wait for what
should be the final USSC ruling (I say: keep Roe v. Wade as is).
All-in-all the above three
critical issues clearly show the total ignorance of Gov. Greg Abbott and the madness
of the Texas GOP legislature.
Abbott's attitude seems to be (at least to me):
I want to do it. I can do it. I will do it. Regardless of the harm, hurt, or impact on people or their lives, families, or future.
Texas has this mindset
about being an independent state or nation and secession ever since the Civil
War years – all of which they have addressed in the past many times.
I say, okay, let them
secede. No, wait, just give them back to Mexico no strings attached but of course, that assumes Mexico would even take them back. Then build a mighty wall with massive surveillance
100% around them.
Then at valid entry points,
simply do not allow anyone from the “Nation of Texas” to enter the United
States under any circumstances. That would seem to please Abbott and his legislative
goons.
Thanks for stopping by.
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