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Related: About this forumLosing My Lege: ‘Jane Doe’ Seeks Abortion Care at the Texas State Capitol
Losing My Lege: Jane Doe Seeks Abortion Care at the Texas State CapitolOn Friday, a young person going by the name of Jane donned a hospital gown, walked into Texas state Rep. Geanie Morrisons office, and asked for an abortion.
Jane could only assume, from the debates held in the state legislature over the past several weeks, that since anti-choice lawmakers apparently believe theyre in the best position to tell Texans whether they can, or should, access legal abortion care, Jane would just go straight to the source. In this case, that source was Morrison, a Republican lawmaker from Victoria, Texas who sponsored HB 3994, a bill that would make accessing legal abortion nearly impossible for the most vulnerable Texanspregnant minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents, and who therefore cant obtain the parental consent necessary to obtain a legal abortion in Texas.
Jane was, perhaps unsurprisingly, ushered out quickly by Morrisons staff, along with eight other similarly dressed reproductive justice activists posing as fellow Janes, who had come to the capitol on Friday to protest HB 3994. And so they trudged on to visit the office of pro-choice Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) to thank her for her opposition to HB 3994, before ending with a visit to the governors office itself.
In Texas, theres a system in place to help teens, in some cases kids, who are pregnant and without parents, or who are pregnant and have been abused by their parents. Its called judicial bypass, and it allows a pregnant minorwho, for example, might have been kicked out of their home because they are transgender, or who was raped by their father, or whose mother might be absent and struggling with drug addictionto be able to decide whether or not to continue their pregnancy. A minor, called Jane Doe by the court, appears before a judge and tells their story. If a judge feels the minor is mature enough to make that decision, especially if that minor would be in danger if their parents found out about their pregnancy, the judge can stand in for the absent parent in granting consent for the procedure.
Without a bypass, and without parental consent, a minor has no choice but to carry their pregnancy to term. A bypass isnt a guarantee that a minor will get an abortion, and it doesnt obligate them to do so. All it does is empower that minor, legally, to seek safe abortion care if thats what they ultimately decide to do.
Supporters of HB 3994 in the legislature have said that minors in Texas are deliberately deceitful, intentionally inserting themselves into the court system because they want to lie to their loving, caring parents. But theres no evidence that the judicial bypass process, developed by bipartisan consensus 15 years ago, is being abused by selfish minors.
Instead, theres plenty of evidence that suggests between 200 and 300 minors per year in Texas cannot safely tell their parents about their pregnancies. We know this, in part, because of the work of Janes Due Process, a nonprofit organization that assists minors in getting judicial bypasses.
The Jane activists who visited the capitol on Friday were there to share those stories as part of a grassroots protest called #HereForJaneTX. They carried signs, spare but poignant, that read: Jane Doe. Age 15. Incarcerated Parent. Jane Doe. Age 16. I dont want to be pregnant. Jane Doe. Age 15. Undocumented. Jane Doe. Age 13. Incest.
Read more: http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/05/22/losing-lege-jane-doe-seeks-abortion-care-texas-state-capitol/
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Losing My Lege: ‘Jane Doe’ Seeks Abortion Care at the Texas State Capitol (Original Post)
Novara
May 2015
OP
deathrind
(1,786 posts)1. Good for them.
The elected officials who pretend to have an MD and can seemingly diagnose patient medical issues without ever seeing them sickens me.
It costs nothing to be anti-choice. A person can spew the anti-choice boiler plate rhetoric and be viewed (mostly by their base) as a great defender of babies. They should put their money where their mouth is and register their homes as safe havens so a woman forced to give birth can drop off the infant as they can at any fire station. I am guessing their stance on the issue would change once it started to actually cost them time, effort and money.
valerief
(53,235 posts)2. I don't know how any pre-menopausal woman can live in Texas these days.
Republicans hate women.
Gothmog
(145,046 posts)3. It is tough living in Texas as times