Bing search results inform me that women from Texas seeking abortion-inducing drugs can likely get them through Whole Woman’s Health of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Why on Earth would I care about that, or want to tell you about it? I’m not a woman, I’m not from Texas, I don’t happen to know any women from Texas whom I also know to be seeking medication-induced abortions, and I doubt that any such women would need my help finding the above information anyway.
BUT!
Texas’s legislature, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports, may soon pass SB 2880/HB 5510, which would make it illegal to “provide information on the method for obtaining an abortion-inducing drug” to women in Texas.
I publish my columns to the Internet (as do many of the newspapers which choose to publish them).
The Internet is, I understand, accessible from Texas.
If the new law passes, this column will remain accessible to Texan women in violation of it, theoretically exposing me to both criminal and civil liability.
So, notice to future Texas law enforcement agents and litigious busybodies:
Bring it.
From my viewpoint, this isn’t about abortion at all. I don’t consider it my job to advise women on whether, or how, to obtain one. In fact, I’m somewhat sympathetic to some moral arguments (though not laws) against doing so.
It’s also clearly not about the “sanctity of life” where Texas’s government is concerned. That regime has arguably executed more than one innocent prisoner, and last year governor Greg Abbott pardoned actual, convicted, unrepentant murderer Daniel Perry to “own the libs.” These people don’t care about “life” per se; they just care about scoring points with their political base.
What it’s about is your right to discuss whatever you please, however you please, whenever you please. That right just isn’t negotiable. There are no circumstances under, nor any subject upon which, the Texas legislature gets to infringe upon or prohibit its exercise in any way, shape, manner, or form.
At least not without a fight.
So, Texas politicians, here’s your chance to show yourselves for who you really are yet again: Pass that evil law and issue a warrant for my arrest or get one of your toadies to file suit against me (or both).
I won’t back down — in fact, I won’t be ABLE to. As soon as I published this column at the Garrison Center’s web site and submitted it to newspapers, I also published it to a blockchain-based medium from which I can’t delete it.
If you agree with what I have to say, please join me in spreading the word. Fortunately, I suspect the courts will nix SB 2880/HB 5510 long before Texas’s tyrants get around to us.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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