As a Texan and pro-life activist, Wednesday should have been a good day for me.
Gov. Greg Abbott just signed legislation that would protect the unborn child in the womb starting at six weeks’ gestation through a “fetal heartbeat” bill. And while I support this level of protection going to the weakest and most vulnerable members of our human family, it’s hard for me to believe this is much more than a ploy to gain support from the many one-issue voters in our state.
While signing pro-life legislation, Abbott is also trying to stop bills such as HB133, which would extend Medicaid coverage for mothers and children throughout the first year of the child’s life. Currently, Medicaid eligibility runs out after the first 60 days, and we know that extending access to healthcare through the first year will actually cut the rates of maternal mortality as well as protect the life of the infant.
This is a real, practical, and tangible solution to what I consider one of the most pressing “anti-life” problems we’re currently seeing in our state, especially among women and children of color, who face a disproportionately higher rate of losing their lives due to poor birth outcomes and lack of healthcare during the first year postpartum.
To create a “culture of life,” we must look at the anti-life systems leading to any and all deaths in our state. When it comes to abortion, we can’t simply address the demand side; we have to acknowledge the supply side as well. Why is it that so many women feel they need access to abortion? It’s actually quite simple: They cannot fathom having the support they need to bring their child into this world as it is.
Just this week, the local news was doing a story on Dallas residents being evicted from their homes in droves. These families had benefited from some protections during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now those safety nets are being lifted. The news showed officers pulling furniture out of an apartment where a teenage boy was simply trying to finish his online schoolwork for the day, with hopes of graduating in a few weeks. His neighbor, who was also being evicted, talked about how she would be sleeping in her car because she literally had nowhere else to go.
But don’t worry, Texas is a “pro-life state.” A pro-life state where you can now walk around with an unlicensed firearm in your local Target. A state where Abbott constantly warns about the “violent” migrants entering our borders, even though I’ve personal worked with many of these individuals as part of my pro-life activism. We help run a shelter in Juarez, Mexico, for women who have experienced sexual assault.
Many of them have become pregnant as a result and are choosing to continue their pregnancies because of the shelter’s support and resources. When it comes to the issue of rape, even some pro-lifers make an exception for terminating under these circumstances, yet these women are choosing life anyway. In my mind, they’re pro-life heroes, not violent criminals, yet you wouldn’t even know they exist if you only listened to the way Abbott dehumanized them when he talks about “illegals.”
So, while the freshly signed abortion law is a step in the right direction, sadly, all I feel is frustration. Frustration from the political theater so many “pro-life” Texans constantly fall for. While this bill does protect the innocent, it’s not nearly enough. What good is it to save a child in the womb, only to have him or her die when kicked out on the streets, or from gun violence, or simply because his or her mother is seeking safety and refuge? Our definition of pro-life needs to be so much bigger, and our self-proclaimed “pro-life” politicians need to rise to that challenge in order to earn our pro-life votes.
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa is the president and founder of the consistent life ethic group New Wave Feminists. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and their four children.
