Call to action:
Instead of lamenting that the vile Texas pregnancy monitoring law isn’t being described as such, let’s do something about it.
Let’s call the law what it is and then share that far and wide. On blogs, on social media, everywhere we can.
We have tons of smart people and good communicators on Balloon Juice, and we have some marketing people as well. Let’s come up with a headline. Let’s come up with a clear and succinct – and easily copyable – descriptive name for the Pregnancy Monitoring Vigilante law and summary of all the harm it does, and then let’s get busy spreading the word.
If you have an idea for the exact wording of the headline, share it. If you have come across great clear and short descriptions elsewhere, share them here in the comments.
We don’t like the headlines and the media coverage that make this law seem like no big deal? Let’s make our own.
Here’s my entry for the headline: State of Texas Passes A Pregnancy Monitoring Law, Gets Supreme Court Blessing
What’s yours?
Baud
I don’t have a specific suggestion, but emphasizing “bounties” or “bounty hunters” seems powerful to me.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Good idea. I’ll start a list, and add to it as suggestions come in.
WaterGirl
Headline suggestions:
Sallycat
Florida’s very own horrible governor has announced he likes the Texas law and hopes to pass a similar law in Florida.
LiminalOwl
I’ll go with Jill Filipovic’s “Anti-Choice Terrorism Codified.” Except I want the word “vigilantism “ in there too.
ETA: also too, what Baud said.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I say we give our list of key words to Betty Cracker and ask her to craft it into a statement/explanation of the law.
piratedan
Texas Bastard industry set to fill economic niche!
AndyG
Texas Allows Citizen Bounty Hunters to Profit From Forcing Women to Carry Their Rapist’s Babies to Term
Ruckus
State of Texas Passes A
PregnancyWoman Monitoring Law, Gets Supreme Court BlessingLooks like this in reality.
State of Texas Passes A Woman Monitoring Law, Gets Supreme Court Blessing
Baud
“Despite Roe, Supreme Court allows Texas to Deputize Abortion Bounty Hunters.”
Alce_e_ardillo
TEXAS passes “Old Father Hubbard’s bill to keep Mother in a shoe forever.”
citizen dave
It’s really evil. I happened to hear an audio story a few weeks ago–history of Soviet food or something, but the part I heard was about when Stalin moved so many to the apartment blocks in the cities, and the people generally had no kitchens of their own, and had to use a communal kitchen. Causing gossip, looking over one’s shoulder, reporting on one’s fellow citizen, etc. This Texas law is evil in so many ways.
Fu*k ALL the Republicans, in ALL ways.
Almost Retired
I have to think about it, but I would want to emphasize that you can’t just shrug off this anti-abortion law because you don’t have a working uterus or are not an abortion provider.
Something like “you may be an involuntary draftee in the extreme right’s war on women,” emphasizing the breadth of the “aiding and abetting” dragnet. That’s a lot of words, alas…but you get the idea.
Anyway
@Baud:
“Annulling Roe, Supreme Court allows Texas to Deputize Abortion Bounty Hunters.”
WaterGirl
@Baud: Good ones!
Feathers
Teresa Nielsen Hayden suggested on Twitter that Texas is bringing back Letters of Marque and Reprisal. I think this is an excellent thing to call the Texas Abortion Bounty. https://twitter.com/tnielsenhayden/status/1433420983549956097?s=20
Omnes Omnibus
Texas Law Authorizes Vigilante Enforcement of Radical Pregnancy Law
Supreme Court Allows Bounty On Pregnant Women in Texas
Baud
@Anyway: How about “Disregarding Roe.” “Annulling” is substantively correct, but could give rise to BS technical arguments.
James E Powell
Republicans ban abortion in Texas, promise the same for every other state.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Radical
Anyway
@Baud:
Disregard is perfect.
Excellent entries from Omnes…
Dorothy A. Winsor
Republicans urge neighbors to spy on your family planning
FelonyGovt
Texas law incentivizes busybodies to scrutinize every miscarriage
mali muso
Not sure how to fit it in, but I think something along the lines of emphasizing how this leads to “criminalizing miscarriage” might be useful. Everyone knows someone who has experienced miscarriage (frankly, we all know people who have had abortions too, but probably are less aware of this) and drawing attention to the fact that this law will put all women who are going through a miscarriage in the cross-hairs of bounty hunters should be pretty shocking.
WaterGirl
You guys are good at this. Keep ’em coming.
WaterGirl
Updated list:
@Baud: Good idea. I’ll start a list, and add to it as suggestions come in.
Baud
“Supreme Court blesses socialized pregnancies.”
Matt
Republican men excited to begin PMSing
PMSing (Pregnancy Monitoring and Snitching)
Ksmiami
@Baud: incel vigilante brigade
West of the Rockies
I was thinking P***y Posse or P***y Police, but that’s obviously problematic (if pithy)
Maybe The Hand Maid Brigade.
Omnes Omnibus
@mali muso: Hard to get everything bad about this law into a headline.
Felanius Kootea
@WaterGirl:
I really like these entries, but would restate
“Texas Law Authorizes Vigilante Enforcement of Radical Pregnancy Law”
as
“Texas Republicans Authorize Vigilante Enforcement of Radical Pregnancy Law”
How about:
Texas Law Requires Women to Prove Miscarriage Was not Intentional
JanieM
I live in a state where Yankee reserve has been raised to an art form, and most people maintain a delicate balance between minding their own business and keeping enough of an eye on the neighborhood to notice if someone is not okay. In that light, I’m thinking about the law I’d like to see passed to nullify this one, something like the “Mind Your Own Goddamned Business” law. But I haven’t figured out how to turn that into a headline that fits the premise of the thread.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ksmiami: Incel might not register with normies.
Salt Water Cleanse
SCOTUS on path to scarlet letters and stoning.
Didn’t Jesus say something like, “Let he who lives in Texas cast the first stone?”
John S.
Your Body, My Choice
jimmiraybob
Texas Inquisition? As in, “nobody expects the…”
Edmund Dantes
Texas gop wants your creepy neighbor to second guess your teenage daughters Ob/gyn’s medical care.
Texas gop enacted a law to allow creepy neighbor to view your daughter’s medical records every time she misses a period.
Texas gop enacted a law to make sure your 16 year old daughter need to prove their late period was normal and not an abortion
Really drive home the children aspect. This isn’t just about adult women. It’s all women medical care.
Ksmiami
“Gilead for Fun and Profit. Texas Criminalizes Wimmin stuff”
Splitting Image
“Snitches get stitches” works for me.
Also, nobody’s mentioned “thirty pieces of silver”.
grumbles
The Panty-Sniffer Empowerment Act of 2021.
mali muso
@Omnes Omnibus: Hard to even wrap your head around all that is wrong with it.
Almost Retired
I would call it the “Gladys Kravitz Act,” but no one under 60 would get the reference.
Kay
Really good, by Dalia Lithwick. She captures how ridiculous these people have become- what frauds they all are.
These aren’t “smart” people. They’re sneaky, cowardly people who bob and weave and lie and trick because they believe they are superior.
Conservatives think the incessant, constant LYING they do doesn’t matter, but it does. They will only attract liars. Honest people can’t operate in the environment they have created. They reward liars.
Salt Water Cleanse
@Almost Retired: I’m 57 and I get it!
Well done.
Subsole
Pregnant Women Now State Property
Martin
Texas Expands Business Opportunities: Suing Incest Victims for Profit.
Ksmiami
“No womb left behind: Your body, my business- Texas SB-8 reduces sexy time in entire state. They’re all Dry counties now.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
I just did a rudimentary google search for statements by associations of OB/Gyns and didn’t find anything. I’m guessing they try to avoid anything political, but maybe I just didn’t find it
NickM
Bounty Hunter law is Straight Up Fascism, Texas-Style.
Subsole
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t try.
Pick a horror, one facet, boil it down, then say it.
Short and emotional.
You’re baiting a hook, not cleaning the fish.
trollhattan
Here’s a garden of Susan Collins declarations that Kavanaugh will indeed uphold Roe V. Wade as settled law, precedent, the best ice cream flavor. HT Political Wire
Has anybody spotted the Collins Concern Monitor? It’s AWOL.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
Vagina Patrol.
Coming toAlready in the 9th century state of Texasyou live in.My point about this being more than a pregnancy watch is that how do you know? How soon do women know they are/might be pregnant? How soon do others know a woman is pregnant? It’s a variable and it really is rather undetectable to other than the woman without medical help early on, so this is not just an anti not pregnant law, it is an extreme anti female law. Because women
will beare now subjected to extreme, horrible, bias, and not just pregnant women, all women between, approximately 12-16 and approximately 45-55 yrs old. (As if the extremists who wrote this crap give a damn if you are actually pregnant.)p.a.
The Anne Frank, Rat Out Your Neighbor Law.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
“Vagina Patrol” starring Broderick Crawford. Truly one of the ’50s epic theme songs.
WaterGirl
Headline suggestions:
CaseyL
Texas Abortion Law: Inform on your neighbors, coworkers, and even total strangers, for cash prizes!
WaterGirl
Key words and phrases:
Ruckus
@p.a.:
The Anne Frank, Rat Out Your Neighbor And Make $10K Law.
FIXITFY
Super Dave
@WaterGirl: Texas Passes Bountiful Rapist Protection Act (BRPA) to Shield BUBBAs (Big Uncouth Billy Bob Assholes)
Somebody smarter than me could run with that and make it better?
Salt Water Cleanse
@Edmund Dantes: Agreed! Emphasize the impact on teenage girls. I didn’t have regular periods until my 40s; this law woulda had me in all kinds of trouble trying to prove what my womb was up to.
I remember clearly a doctor visit when I was about 22. The nurse asked when my last period was. I replied, “I dunno, a few months ago maybe.” She looked at me in horror like I was some kind of freak, “How do you know you’re not pregnant?!!!” I was mortified and shy, so I just shrugged and hoped to disappear as she tut-tutted her way out of the room. To this day I fantasize about all the replies I should’ve given her, including “Well unless it’s the second coming of Christ, I’m sure I’m not pregnant.”
Woodrow/asim
@Kay: Reading that was like a balm for my soul, right now. Thank you, Kay.
I don’t have a contribution for this thread; slogans aren’t in my wheelhouse at the best of times, and it’s best I stick to the stuff I do best — ramblin’ :)
WaterGirl
@Woodrow/asim: I’m asking for headlines and words and phrases that can be used in the short-but-longer explanation of what this law does and what the law allows.
You are good with words and phrases, so jump right in.
WaterGirl
Does anyone else think it’s a good idea to share the lists with Betty Cracker and ask her to describe the law, as only betty cracker can?
WaterGirl
We’ve got some really terrific headlines! Seems like there are a lot more key words that should be included in the longer explanation of the law.
Subsole
Forced Pregnancy Posse Legalized
USSC Monetizes Forced Births
Anonymous Justices Legalize Pregnancy Spies
Fertility Witchhunts Loom in TX
Clinics Brace for Wave of Legalized Harassment
Anonymous Decision Overrules Women’s Choice
Etc.
But here’s the trouble. The papers and networks ain’t reporting this, because it makes Conservatives look bad.
They want Trump back. They want the Repubes in charge. They like the bigotry and the chaos. They hate us. Look at how they behaved the last five years. They have pledged their allegiance, and it ain’t to the red white and blue. They’ll page Z-15 this whole deal, mention it once, then go back to gorging on Biden’s Benghazighan or Delta Covid coverage.
Truth? You’re better off looking up local TX newspaper editors and journalists and anchors and false-charging them. Make those worthless fucking jackboot-sucking milquetoast simps we call reporters feel pain from this, and they may actually start calling it what it is.
They are fine with fascism, as long as it does not inconvenience THEM.
This suggests a possible solution. Or maybe I’m just cranky.
West of the Rockies
I anticipate a bunch of cheerleaders and wannabes will start turning each other in. Competition for the cheer squad gets intense, and misogynistic behavior is not the exclusive territory of the testosterone-empowered.
Baud
@West of the Rockies:
I look forward to the case of Heather v. Becky.
WaterGirl
@Subsole: Anonymous informants? Will women even get to know who has accused them?
So that person you chose not to hire could make up a false claim and you could never know, so you can’t explain how you didn’t hire her, or you married her -ex, or whatever?
Ruckus
I believe the list of reasons one might not want to live in Texas just got bigger.
I wonder what Texas would look like if 90% of the woman left? Wanna bet it wouldn’t be more pleasant in any way?
West of the Rockies
@Baud: Is that Becky with the good hair?
WaterGirl
Another headline list, I will combine them later:
Fair Economist
“Conservative majority on Supreme Court supports Texas law forcing women to bear rapist’s babies.”
Antonius
Texas puts bounty on pregnant incest victims.
Felanius Kootea
More headline possibilities:
Texas Republicans Make Common Cause with the Taliban on Women’s Rights
Texas Republicans Insist Forcing Women to Give Birth is Freedom
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Yes.
But I’d bet she is in one of two moods.
A. So pissed off that she can’t touch a keyboard without setting it on fire.
B. So pissed off that she can’t formulate the words of the english language. (and I’m assuming {and yes I know ass….} that she doesn’t type in other languages)
Ksmiami
“No Country Except for Old Men- Christian busy-bodies left behind wonder why womb police drove everyone away.”
Ruckus
@Subsole:
Or maybe I’m just cranky.
Nothing wrong with being cranky at this point in time.
Snarki, child of Loki
“Greedy busybody ‘Up in your business’ law”
Felanius Kootea
Texas Law Incentivizes Malicious Targeting of Any Woman
AJ
Forced birth
Forced birth for rape and incest victims
Omnes Omnibus
@Subsole:
That was the point I was making.
WaterGirl
More key words and phrases, I will combine with the previous list later:
narya
A friend just sent me a picture titled “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Unveiling New Uniforms.” They’re in blue handmaid dresses, with the white bonnets with blue stars down the side. I can email to a front pager if you want to post it.
WaterGirl
More headlines, will combine later.
WaterGirl
@narya: Sure.
Ruckus
@Felanius Kootea:
I think that currently Texas republicans might be worse than the Taliban. However ISIS(in any form) may still be worse. It is however a close call.
M31
What about the ‘you must hire a lawyer to defend yourself otherwise you automatically lose’ aspect of the law?
“Texas abortion law set to cost men money”
(sad chortle that this will get more press than backalley abortion deaths)
Fleeting Expletive
@Salt Water Cleanse: My reply way back then to the nurse who asked me the same question: “I haven’t been exposed.”
narya
@WaterGirl: done.
AM in NC
Texas Republicans empower Bounty Hunters to Monitor Women and Punish Miscarriages
Republicans’ new law asks neighbors to inform on neighbors, reminiscent of East German Stasi
Republican law sics bounty hunters on women who miscarry
Republican Law Forces Women to Carry their Rapist’s Baby
Republicans Offer Monetary Incentives for Your Neighbors to Spy on you and Turn You In to the State.
13-Year Olds Forced to Give Birth to Rapist’s Babies, thanks to GOP
Had A Miscarriage? New GOP Law in Texas Allows Your Neighbors to Sue Anyone Involved in Your Care (Including Your Husband)!
trollhattan
“Karen says you’re a slut” law.
Bluegirlfromwyo
All Your Exes Live in Texas? They Can Make Up Your Pregnancy and Cash Out
Chris Johnson
@WaterGirl: “They Will Hunt You”
The lack of process is the point. There’s a reason they couldn’t and didn’t codify a formal process to police women in a law-abiding fashion: they’re just as capable of doing that but it isn’t the prize.
The prize is a reign of terror. They will HUNT you. So be good and do not complain when the Republicans are simply appointed governors, leaders, Presidents just because they say so, because if you complain they will hunt you and they don’t need a reason.
Flagrant desperation: Hitler’s Final Bunker shit.
I never said it would WORK. I’m just saying, this is what they intend and why they are doing what they’re doing, across the board. They have this idea they can be a fascist state and just plain seize power by raw force. This, while they don’t have the military. They’re still trying, though.
The real win will be restoring rule of law after demonstrating how important it is to have that. That will be OUR prize. These guys are demonstrating why fascism sucks rocks. They are blowing it. They think they have no other choice.
WaterGirl
@narya:
Apples
Can we all just take a moment to remember what a fantastic Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was?
Remember how she used to work out with a former Navy Seal?
And how about those different jabots she wore?
She certainly has left a very clear and unmistakable legacy on American jurisprudence.
Ksmiami
Texas-Howdy Arabia deemed too extreme on women’s health by Sister City Riyadh.
RShannon
Texas updates Fugitive Slave Law for 21st century
Just Chuck
This wasn’t a ballot initiative, was it? There might actually be political consequences this time. When it was put to the voters in MISSISSIPPI of all places, their Fetal Heartbeat Bill went down in flames. In fucking Mississippi.
West of the Rockies
If I’m a young woman choosing between University of Texas and another college in another state, the choice just got easier.
Subsole
@Salt Water Cleanse:
See, I looked at it the opposite way.
Teenage girls don’t vote. 20-30 year old college-educated suburban professionals do. And while their little darling would never get an abortion, kids can be cruel. Maybe one of the popular kids decides it’ll be funny to drag your loser-ass kid and their loser-ass folks into court. I mean, bullying is bad enough already. Now the class bully can actually use the civil courts to target your kids. You don’t even need a daughter. This affects boys too.
Maybe you’re tired of your football team losing in finals. ‘Hey, the opponent’s QB took his GF to get an abortion.’ Time it right, and hey presto.
We are about to discover what miserable, petty, conniving little assholes folks can be. It will not be pretty. At all.
This shit ends TOMORROW if blond-haired blue-eyed white ladies in the suburbs with a life and a job and a family and a degree start suffering for it.
Make them see how they can.
Ruckus
@JanieM:
“Mind Your Own Goddamned Business”
I can fix it for you with one word. Some don’t like that I swear a bit on BJ, even when normal swearing isn’t quite enough and this one word is a bit strong for some on this blog, but the reality of the situation I think demands it, if only for clarity. So….
“Mind Your Own Goddamned Fucking Business”
piratedan
this certainly turned FAFO on its ear, just add a comma
Fucked Around, Found Out
Poe Larity
@Ruckus:
In Texas, Trump got 47% of the women’s vote in 2016 (48% in 2020) and 66% of the white women. In 2020, 51% of college educated and 68% of no degreed white women.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@John S.: I love this one…sums up their attitude on covid too.
Winston
Bank deposits frozen in Texas due to Supreme Court Ruling.
Omnes Omnibus
@Apples: Blow me.
WaterGirl
I need to put together a zucchini casserole for my company tonight, but I will be back to check for more entries as soon as that’s done.
LongHairedWeirdo
“Republicans flush civil rights and due process down the toilet; 5 SCOTUS judges each insist on taking a dump on them before actual flushing occurs.”
Herm. A bit crude, however accurate. And too long, I grant, it just doesn’t *pop*.
Juju
Someone on LGM called it the “Fugitive Uterus Act”. I’d run with that and go with,
Supreme Court okays the Fugitive Uterus Act.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is a work of fiction, not a manual.
I kind of feel like somebody’s watching me.
TerryTime
@Subsole: This. This. This.
persistentillusion
@JanieM: In Colorado, we have Focus on the Family. Progressives usually respond by saying “How about you Focus on your own goddam Family and leave mine alone?”
ETA: Focus on the Family is both very conservative and deeply intrusive in the ways they talk about children, the correct way to raise them and finally, that all us terrible liberals are going to hell.
ant
I would keep it simple, and go right to the heart of the matter.
The female inequality act.
Talking points would be simple:
Republicans want white men to decide, Female decisions are unequal. Everyone who is not a white man (plus all white men who do not agree), can expect the same treatment from Republicans in all matters.
This is what MAGA means. Define it.
senyordave
Handmaid’s Tale, Texas style
KSinMA
Texas Taliban
Ksmiami
Texas Republican Womb Rangers Lead State Charge…back to 1854.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl:
Sorry, pedant, but I remember Mother Hubbard going to the cupboard to get her old dog a bone. No mention of any children.
Now, there was An Old Woman who lived in a shoe with so many children she didn’t know what to do. Typical of the period, she is not named.
Winston
City accused of aiding and abetting abortions by allowing women to live there. Gas stations close by the thousands after being accused of aiding and abetting abortions in Texas.
Kay
Head of anti-abortion groups says “fathers and other relatives will report abortions obtained by female relatives, unhappy that their daughters or sisters chose not to continue their pregnancy”
So it isn’t your neighbor who will report you. It’s your father or brother.
Just monstrous.
Ruckus
@Poe Larity:
I was just thinking that 90% of them had actual human female lives. You know physically capable of reproduction. Maybe that 90% is high, those under 12 and over 55 might not count (although I wouldn’t count out the possibility) but still it’s a sizable slice of the Texas population. This law effects their physical being and privacy. Of course in Texas women’s physical being and privacy are NOW the concern and right of every other human that breathes.
And the SC went along without any actual thought or legal scrutineering because they are as screwed up as the Texas law makers. This law breaks so many concepts of American law that anyone who voted for this crap should be given an ISIS membership card. Which is the only thing that they have earned.
Salt Water Cleanse
@trollhattan: YES!! Love it. “Karen says you’re a slut” law. OMG, thank you for this. Laughing through my tears.
Baud
@Kay:
Yeah, everyone talks about strangers, but most snitches will be fathers, SOs and ex’s.
Salt Water Cleanse
@Subsole: Yeah, I feel ya. Good points all.
Subsole
@ant:
This. Please. This one.
Subsole
@Kay:
Or your ex who got angry you dumped him…
opiejeanne
@Ksmiami: Texas: Bounties paid to Womb Police.
Pennsylvanian
Skipped menstrual period by any female in Texas now grounds for legal action and financial penalties
Male rapists now free to profit from any resulting pregnancy in female victims in the state of Texas
Miscarriage is now grounds for legal targeting and extortion by neighbors, friends and enemies in Texas
Texas females now subject to menstrual cycle monitoring by any random asshole for legal targeting and extortion
Cameron
From out of the Old West they came, the Lone Star State. Hard men, eyes that didn’t miss a thing, blazing speed in dialing the hot line, never let truth stand in the way. People called them…..The Vaginalantes….
Ruckus
@Kay:
This.
This is why I wrote above that it’s all female humans, because it is anyone capable of being pregnant and will extremely likely affect those that actually aren’t in even worse ways.
I’d apologize for being male, except that really isn’t the problem, any more than being female is. The problem is conservatives, and their concepts and ideas of “governing.” This law is about a zillion steps beyond any concept of reasonable governing. I can’t recall any history of laws this bad, and that book alone is enough to fill a library.
JanieM
@Ruckus:
I don’t remember ever disagreeing with you before, and I’m also fine with the word you added and use it all the time myself. But in this case, adding it takes away the punch. If you want to insist on it, I’d expand it even more…..
But it’s moot either way, because no one’s going to use our profanity-laden headlines.
Subsole
What galls me is that the media has demonstrated, by their choice of coverage, that they do not think women’s equality is worth discussing.
I would be pointing that out, LOUDLY, every chance I got, from the Saturday kiki to the Church lunch.
Hell, drop talk shows like the view a letter. Hit up the late-night comedy hosts and mention it to them. I dunno. Every mic and megaphone you can reach. Shit, organize another pink hat march.
Our democracy is not sustainable if the media refuses to report the facts. We have to figure a way to attack that. I am too angry to offer anything good, but dear god. There must be a lever, somewhere…
Kay
Really interesting, the language that the newly deputized pregnancy police are using. It’s the language of police and law enforcement. They’ve only be granted their extraordinary powers 24 hours and they’re already acting as an extralegal police force.
But you knew it wouldn’t be restrained. The highest court in the country just gave them their blessing.
Poe Larity
A near-majority of Texans favor outlawing abortion after six weeks, UT/TT Poll finds
27% of democrats support. So even a dem crazificaction factor there. Unless we’re looking to influence federal courts, I think the messaging should focus on intra-Texas messaging and not what riles up outsiders. External messaging can be for a separate fund-raising effort.
Perhaps a reading through of Askreddit posts like https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/pghg3e/what_advice_would_you_give_to_young_women_in/
A lot of discussion on IUDs. Arguably, this “law” could result in an even faster collapse of white folk procreation. So maybe be something like “Rapist Rights’ Act Leads To White Decline”
Another Scott
“Pecksniffian bounty hunters in Texas are coming for you and your children.”
Cheers,
Scott.
Splitting Image
@Salt Water Cleanse:
“Karen” is kind of an inside-baseball joke, isn’t it?
“Your neighbour told me you’re a slut” will work better.
“So your dad told me you’re a baby-killer. Bless your little heart.”
Immanentize
Texas “He-Man Women’s Hater Club” gets Greenlight from SCOTUS.
SCOTUS Throws Out the Right to Choose; Eyes Allowing Racial Discrimination.
SCOTUS Decision Starts Sectarian War in Texas.
SCOTUS Decision Ushers in the Age of Assassins.
Misterpuff
Have a Miscarriage, Get Sued!
Translated for Evangelicals:
Have a Miscarriage (God’s Will), Get Sued (by your neighbors, enemies, out of state randos or even your own pastor).
RevRick
Here’s what I posted on Facebook yesterday:
Are women full human beings?
That’s the question posed by the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the horrendous Texas abortion law to stand. And their verdict is, “No, women are not human beings.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that the state may hijack a woman’s body and her life to serve the state’s agenda, and she has no recourse.
This is the very substance of tyranny.
Pennsylvanian
Want to fuck? You’re out of luck. Women lead nationwide sex strike in response to fascist Texas bill.
JoyceH
Texas Deputizes Vindictive Exes to Harass Women, Pays Bounty For It
The problem with all the sad stories about teens forced to carry rapists’ babies is that for most people, that’s a news story. Families of rape victims keep it secret if they can, to protect the child. Pregnant from rapist might happen right on your block and you wouldn’t know it. EVERY woman either has a vindictive ex or personally knows someone who does.
Juju
@ant: That is perfect.
West of the Rockies
Womb Raider 3: This Time, It’s Super Personal.
Ksmiami
@Cameron: awesome
NutmegAgain
From Pantysniffy to Tampon Testing–Come to Texas
If it’s got a Vagina, Nothing too Private to Poke Ourselves Into!
SiubhanDuinne
Texas Offers Riches for Snitches
Raoul Paste
@Subsole: “Pregnancy spies“ is a good one. Succinct
Misterpuff
Bro, your ex-girlfriend preggers in TX? Get ready for child support payments, like forever. Thank Texas and that snooty Supreme Court!
Baud
@Ksmiami:
Womb raiders.
Baud
@Poe Larity:
That’s from 2019.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Succinct and appropriate.
scav
Texas
Enables
eXtremist
Abortion
Snitches
or
Tolitarian
Enforcers of
eXtremist
Absolutist
MiSogyny
PST
I have two ideas about ways to fight the law, both rather unsavory, but justified.
The first I brought up in another thread, but I want to put it back on the table. I read the bill carefully start to finish, and it is brilliantly diabolical. Someone was at work dotting every I, crossing every T, preempting every workaround, avoiding strategies for prompt judicial review, and putting every ounce of risk on the defendants alone in civil enforcement actions. Care can be found in even the mundane provisions, such as venue. But all that skill means that the bill is a perfect template for turnabout is fair play. Blue states also face frustration caused by the constitutional interpretations of the federal courts. Now we know how to pass laws that would otherwise be clearly unconstitutional in the eyes of today’s misguided Supreme Court but that will survive for several years unreviewed with potentially ruinous consequences for anyone who tries to defy them. I suggest gun control as the first subject, but I’ll bet we can think of many more. California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and every other sensible state should be working already on a draconian statutory scheme that will make it as hard to purchase or carry a firearm as it is to get an abortion in Texas. SB 8 is so brilliantly constructed that a couple of bright legislative staffers with legal training could cut, paste, and substitute words easily enough to finish over a long holiday weekend. It wouldn’t stand up in the long run, but let the gun humpers howl for the next three years! Maybe this strategy will lose favor if Republican understand the concept of mutually assured destruction. Or maybe, I suppose, SCOTUS will simply apply inconsistent standards and forbid California to do what it allows for Texas. At least that might be so grossly cynical as to push a few waverers in Congress in the direction of expansion.
Then there is what comes close to the moral equivalent of doxing, but they’ve asked for it. We know that even with the ironclad control the Republicans have now, Texas has almost as many Democrats. It has millions of pro-choice advocates, especially among women, and many of these folks are the same sort of prosperous suburbanites as a majority of legislators, public officials, party bigwigs, and members of the donor class. They live in the same neighborhoods and their kids go to the same schools. Let them keep their eyes and ears open for evidence of families who take the Republican line when it comes to others but will go out of state or send their daughters when abortion is reasonably needed. Those members of the leopards-eating-people’s-faces party need to understand that they too are under constant surveillance and the leopards are after them as well. This is dirty business, but imagine the indignation (and shame) when Dad is sued for paying for an abortion, Mom is sued for driving Suzy to the airport, Dr. Smith is sued for making a referral to a colleague in Colorado, and a little imagination should widen that circle. And even well-to-do people can use $10,000 or $50,000 of free money for turning the tables.
I just got home and haven’t read the whole thread, so maybe others have made these suggestions. I don’t think I’ll be the only one to think of them. This must be made to blow up in their faces in every way possible.
opiejeanne
@Kay: What’s next? “Honor killings”?
MFA
Neighborhood Nursery Watch?
CIA? (The ‘A’ being scarlet, of course.)
Fetal Force?
Menses at Work?
AfterBirthers?
Abortifascists?
scav
@opiejeanne: Rapists suing their victims to get an additional pound of flesh.
MFA
Everything’s Buggered in Texas?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
“Trump Justices Break Precedent In Supreme Court Endorsement of Radical Texas Pregnancy Vigilante Law”
Mallard Filmore
You do the work, devote your life to this kid, spend your own money … and I will sit back and bask in God’s smile and glory.
Stolen valor.
West of the Rockies
@Ruckus:
Conservatism: the belief that someone, somewhere is happy… and we can’t have that.
opiejeanne
@Mallard Filmore: I’m slow today. Well, more than most days.
I don’t get what you’re saying. Please explain as if to a child?
CROAKER
How about stop
JCNZ
If a young woman could afford to go out of state and have an abortion, she could still be busted for having had one – as could her mom for accompanying her there or her dad for driving them to the airport? Is that correct? Or is this spectacular vileness limited only to actions that take place in Texas? If it is not limited in that way, then middle-class people could find themselves victims of the bounty hunters. Interesting to see how that’ll go.
Shakti
@WaterGirl:
Clearly, I’m more about clickbait & editorializing. My headline suggestions:
West of the Rockies
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
All joking aside, that’s a pretty damn good and succinct thesis.
Alison Rose
I like a lot of the suggestions, but would offer the gentle nudge to keep it gender neutral, because while the right wing is obviously aiming their rage at cis women, there are others who can get pregnant and can have even harder experiences getting medical care due to their gender identity.
Anyway
Can we send the list to The Onion, Stephen Colbert and Seth Myers’ show – headlines like this need to go viral so the FTFNYT and Nice Polite Republicans are forced to acknowledge it.
JCNZ
@PST: I missed this. Great observations in both cases.
Ruckus
@JanieM:
But it’s moot either way, because no one’s going to use our profanity-laden headlines.
Truth!
Or likely ones that even tell that actual truth without the swearing.
karen marie
“State of Texas Condemns Women to Death By Forbidding Access to Medical Care”
“State of Texas Criminalizes Access to Critical Medical Care For Women Suffering Miscarriages”
bemused senior
I was too late for the thread last night where discussion of red vs. blue was hot. I urge you to listen to and watch this rendition of “lift every heart”, called by many the Black national anthem. Its words and the video inspired me when I first saw it to reflect on our need to be willing to undertake a long struggle to achieve justice for all. https://youtu.be/MyS3HPInHtI
trollhattan
@JCNZ:
Detective: “And why did you fly to LAX then return to DFW twenty-four hours later?”
Ingenue: “Sorority rush at USC?”
Captain C
@WaterGirl:
A variation on the second one:
Texas Law Allows Rapists To Profit By Forcing Women To Carry Their Forced Pregnancy To Term
Another Scott
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Anyway: I’m still making dinner for company so I haven’t had a chance to see the new additions.
Look for another post this weekend where I share the lists and we can choose our top favorites – maybe winnow the headline list to half?
I’ll see if Betty might be willing to take our key words, add her own key words and turn it into a paragraph that explains what the world could really look like with this draconian law.
Anyway, stay tuned. Thanks everybody!
Then we can strategize about how to get the word out, etc.
debbie
@Kay:
For the minute I could bear to listen to him, Glenn Beck was whining that no one was thinking of the men.
Oh, I’m thinking, buddy, believe me…
Mallard Filmore
@opiejeanne: You, the unwilling mother, do the work and spend the money. I, the anti-abortionist, am doing God’s work to stop killing “babies”.
No, I do not get to feel good about dumping an immense burden on someone else and walking away. I see this in a similar light to claiming a military medal that I have not earned.
Faithful Lurker
Maybe someone else has pointed this out, but this law has modern historical roots and ones that I think would be very objectionable to the good right wing of Texas. This vigilantism is what the Red Guard was paid and encouraged to do during the Cultural Revolution in China. Some one should point out, in public, that Abbot and co. are behaving like communists. Ask them if they have their Little Red Book on their person.
Geminid
@Salt Water Cleanse: If you’re Karen, you’re sharin’.
Karen Hawkins
Law turns Texans into Period Police
Argiope
“Got a uterus? Say goodbye to being a person; Texas says you’re just an incubator.”
Text should include quote about a woman being a “host body” from TX state legislator
No reason to fish earlier version out of moderation, WG—I misspelled my email.
Mallard Filmore
@Faithful Lurker: Communist party identifies as RED. Republican party identifies as RED. Connect the dots.
PST
@JCNZ: Is there potential liability for aiding and abetting an out-of-state abortion? I thought so when I first read the act, since there is no language that specifically limits the aiding and abetting liability to abortions performed in Texas. My comment at 152 reflects that assumption. But I think I was wrong. The out for wealthy and sophisticated people is buried in the definitions. The word “physician” is defined as having a Texas medical license. Then physicians, meaning Texas licensed physicians, are forbidden to perform post-heartbeat abortions. Finally, aiding or abetting an abortion that violates the act is forbidden, but it only violates the act if a Texas doc does it. So I guess a good argument can be made that driving someone to the airport and paying the bill doesn’t count as long as you make sure the doctor isn’t cross-licensed in Texas. I’ll bet that this is intentional and that the subtlety is intentional as well.
catothedog
Corrupt Republicans on Supreme Court approves power of religious nuts to inspect every woman’s womb
Jonathan
@Juju: +1
This has stuck in my head since I saw it
zhena gogolia
@bemused senior:
Beautiful, thanks!
Uncle Cosmo
Do I understand correctly that this law has no exception for ectopic pregnancies? In that case,
TEXAS FLOUTS ROE – WOMEN’S CHOICE: JAIL OR DEATH
(For the unfortunate minority, but let’s not let the statistics get in the way of a pointed rejoinder. Those GQP bastards never hesitate a picosecond to dig up the one individual who might be mildly inconvenienced by something Democrats have done and splash their sob-story across every media platform in the multiverse…)
Subsole
@Faithful Lurker:
They won’t care. They are not appalled by the actions. They are envious.
Even if they did feel the sting of conscience, they are under the purifying and righteous blood of Jesus. So it’s all good.
Their faith is just an excuse, most days. Remember that always, and you will get a pretty good handle on them.
When Christ said “be not as the hypocrites who pray loudly in public,” these are the folks he was warning about.
Another Scott
We know how to solve our present problems. We need to do the work to make it possible.
Cheers,
Scott.
Shakti
Lifestyle mags:
Fleeting Expletive
what I hope happens is that the vast numbers of white women, suburban, caregiving or jobholding women, react with horror and revulsion to Texas’ and Republican laws. They could even become Democrats because of this insult Of course a fair percentage will be of the evangelical persuasion, though. My reaction is pure disgust, so I have a hard time imagining how some people will think it’s just ducky. It felt good to send some money to the Texas Fund Choice people, even though my hundred will get split up into little amounts, I do want the recipient organizations to know they have support for the work they do. Maybe I can do it monthly.
Woodrow/asim
Thank you! Trouble is, I love words so much that I have real trouble with “short and pithy” :) Trust — I used to write a few poetry styles, and used to do haiku just to force myself to stop writing so damn much!
…and it’s esp. bad, when, as it turns out, I’m unexpectedly exhausted, and fall asleep for a multi-hour nap!
ema
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
ACOG’s statement on the Uterine Containers Law.
Woodrow/asim
I’ll gladly second this, and have been striving to manage how I talk gender (or not!) when I discuss these issues, esp over last year or so.
MirandaWonders
Texas extremists have just redefined Labor Day by mandating forced labor on all Texan pregnant people.
piratedan
with all of the potential bumper stickers being floated around, I do hope that there is an army of young women notifying each other of how the game has changed…. because the potential of something that was just supposed to be fun can now turn into a financial millstone depending upon the effectiveness of your birth control and your partner (and all of the potential douchebags in his circle (and hers))
Woodrow/asim
…I’m sorry, @WaterGirl. I tried, but all this? I can’t even make slogans of it, it’s too raw and real for me. The couple that I workshopped felt like slaps in the face, against the reality of this shitstorm. (No judgement on those who can.)
Thank you for asking, though.
mali muso
Well, one spot of good news. GoDaddy is cutting off Texas Right to Life’s abortion ‘whistleblowing’ website
stinger
The only comment I had for WaterGirl’s initial “Pregnancy Monitoring Law” is that it could be seen as “monitoring by your healthcare professional”, when really it’s “monitoring by your nosy neighbor or complete strangers with no healthcare expertise whatsoever”. Many other good suggestions here!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
stinger
Call Your Neighbor a Slut and Win $10,000!
LivinginExile
Your body, my bounty.
debbie
Lovely headlines all; most are too long to really stick in the mind. Something short and snappy would be better, maybe “Christian Taliban Takes Control of Texas” might get more attention.
banditqueen
@Pennsylvanian:
Those headlines blast the legalese from the TX law.
MazeDancer
In an ad:
“Do You Want Your Daughter to Carry Her Rapist’s Baby?”
@Chris Johnson:
“They Will Hunt You” is very good.
Inspire anger and fear. Forget any other strategy.
Suzanne
“Miscarriage Gestapo”
”Handmaid’s Tale, now nonfiction”
Eunicecycle
OT but related: What is the proof needed that the woman even had an abortion? How can a woman prove a negative, that they were never pregnant and didn’t have an abortion? I don’t understand the whole thing.
Ruckus
@Mallard Filmore:
I’m not saying that claiming an unearned military medal isn’t important, but this invasion of a woman’s rights seems to me to be a hell of a lot worse. And please don’t forget I enlisted and served during a war. Stolen valor is not the same as this law, it just isn’t.
Starfish
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The American Medical Association had a statement. They are more general than what you are looking for probably.
Michael Cain
Texas nullifies federal medical privacy laws.
no comment
@stinger:
I would suggest “spying” or some other word or phrase (your “nosy neighbor” is good) that describes people sticking their noses in other people’s business.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@ema: Thanks
Also to Starfish at #208
The Thin Black Duke
Any woman voting for the GOP is a suicide bomber.
Ruckus
@debbie:
I can imagine that a number of Texas women could now resort to more extreme measures as to how to not get pregnant. The possibility of a sperm delivery device being severed from the delivery driver with a very sharp tool seems to be set for an increase over the foreseeable future
MomSense
I remember the conversation I had the morning I had to leave the house early to go to the hospital because I was having a hysterectomy. My mom looked so worried so I joked that I would be one less uterus for the Republicans to control. I’ve heard women joke about incorporating their uteri (uteruses?) so the Republicans won’t regulate them. My favorite quip was about 10+ years ago from a state representative in Texas who said that Texas Republicans wanted a government so small it could fit inside your uterus.
We joke about it because as women we are constantly having to prove things and that means we have become skilled at finding just the right language to plead our case. We can’t come across as whining, nagging, complaining, unpleasant, brusque, bitchy, emotional, hysterical – we have to be absolutely perfect in our communication so we don’t make our oppressors feel the slightest discomfort. We can’t show the emotions or consequences resulting from our oppressors’ actions.
And if the pitch of our voice gets higher or more nasal because the emotions, the frustration we feel affects our breath and vocal chords – well that “whiny tone” is justification for dismissing us unceremoniously.
It’s a song as old as time, women reduced to our bodies. It’s exponentially worse for women who are not white. Their experience, the history of their treatment by men is violent.
The pain we all feel is generational. We walk through spaces and time differently. Men don’t experience night or dark or alone on a road or street the same way. Men don’t fear dates or being alone in the boss/professor/teacher’s office the same way.
The weight of the millennia of injustice is just too fucking much to carry sometimes. It doesn’t. No it never had to be this way. We are all sick to fucking death of it.
And now there is so much performative support for women. Call this number and spam the tip line. Give to these organizations. So much ALL CAPS Biden and the Dems need to expand the court and the fact that he hasn’t already is proof of whatever. So much ALL CAPS where is Garland and the DOJ. I just want to tell them all to fuck off.
Where have you been for 40 fucking years when we have tried to tell you that our autonomy was in danger? How fucking hollow and insulting are your protestations that there is no difference between the parties and you will vote your conscience for Nader or Stein? Women’s rights have been the difference between the parties in every vote and every time you couldn’t be arsed to show up and vote. Sometimes I think that if I actually engaged with the people posting the bullshit I would be so vitriolic and over the top I would have to remove myself permanently from polite society.
Yes, there are probably things (MORE) things we can do and better words to persuade others to acknowledge our full humanity. I don’t have them now and I don’t want to. I’m angry and I’m mourning. I’m feeling betrayed and I’m sick to fucking death of all of it.
andy
The state of Texas has today empowered a volunteer Incel Sex Police force
Baud
@MomSense:
{{{MomSense}}}
no comment
@WaterGirl:
I don’t really do social media, but I would think making these into “memes” would be a good way to share them far and wide. Use a relevant picture or just a solid color for the background. Add the headline in large font. In smaller font, add a short paragraph explaining how the law may result in exactly what the seemingly hyperbolic headline says.
Memes would get around the character limit some sites have, and be more memorable. Jackals could share the particular memes/headlines they think would resonate most with users/friends/followers at their favorite social media sites.
WaterGirl
@no comment: Great idea!
MomSense
@Baud:
?
debbie
@MomSense:
?
debbie
Shakti
eddie blake
@WaterGirl: late to the party as ever, but howbout this?
“big brother is watching: texas taliban unveils forced pregnancy bill kneecapping Roe V Wade, conservative cabal on the SCOTUS concurs.”
too long?
eddie blake
@Chris Johnson: is it just me, or is this not going to stay confined to abortion. anyone could be sued for abetting, man, woman or child, even if they haven’t ANYTHING to do with one…
and they’d still have to get a lawyer and defend themselves in court lest they be out at LEAST ten k.
you could drag ANYONE to court. anyone who annoyed you, anyone you hated, anyone you thought was a powerful political foe….anyone.
right? or am i reading this wrong?
dimmsdale
Headline: ‘TEAM REPUBLICAN’ SUPREME COURT JOINS EXTREMIST TEXAS LEGISLATORS IN SHOVING THEIR NOSES UP YOUR WIVES/DAUGHERS’ UTERI
Starfish
@Apples: Can you quit being an ass? Why are you here?
lowtechcyclist
@Almost Retired:
I’m 67 and I didn’t get it. Duddy Kravitz, yes, Gladys Kravitz, no. I gather she was a sitcom character; my family didn’t watch much TV.
debbie
@lowtechcyclist:
Nosy neighbor in Bewitched.
Damned_at_Random
Creepy Stalker or Crime Fighter? Texas Lege Repeals Privacy Rights
Starfish
@Alison Rose: So many of the people being mad at the Texas law have been terrible around gender and around disparaging the various Southwest Asians with Islamophobic stuff. “Oh look, they are bad like the Taliban.” No. They are bad like the white evangelicals who formed the KKK. People need to own up to how bad the white Christian extremists have been.
EmanG
How’s about #TexasTheOneStarState ?
EmanG
@debbie: Jesus, I’m only 58 and I got the reference. Oh, wait…
Shakti
Oh, ok. I was going for emotional, gripping and shocking while true to what the law does because 95% of people don’t read the article.
brantl
“Texas wants vaginal spies; SCOTUS says, “Sure!”.” I’d like to work vaginalantes in there, too, but I just don’t know how.
brantl
@Apples: She did, you asshole, apparently you never read anything about her, or any of her opinions, or the cases she took before she was on the SCOTUS, but keep up your derisive bullshit, all you’re showing is that you have NFC what your talking about.
brantl
Texas empowers vaginalante bounty hunters, Supreme Court says “Sure!” .
Sloane Ranger
Texas creates Curtain Twitcher’s Charter.
Republicans encourage Stalinist informers to spy on their Neighbours bedrooms.
Captain C
@brantl: Vagilantes, perhaps?
Bonnie
I had heard that Texas would slide into the Gulf of Mexico if it weren’t for the fact that Oklahoma Sucks.Too bad.
m.j.
I only make laws against second-class citizens.
I don’t enforce them.
the pollyanna from hell
UUSC BLOODY RAG JUDGES JOIN TEXAS GOP TO THREATEN LIVES OF 20,000,000 FEMALE HOSTAGES. Female hostages range in age from late middle age down to barely pubescent tweens. GOP seeks to extend reign of terror throughout the nation and world. Millions of women and girls locked behind the bloody rag curtain desperately look for a way out. Feds see clean rag stand-off with religious fanatics, insane misogynists and the doctrinaire patriarchy. Death count starts at zero, but is certain to increase from day to day. Highly placed proceduralists and institutionalists refuse to get excited, refer to “bloody rag hysteria.” Detente is unstable, as bloody rag terrorists commit fresh provocation.
the pollyanna from hell
@the pollyanna from hell: USSC, not uusc
AM in NC
@MomSense: All of this. So bone tired of the needs, desires, and basic humanity of more than half the population always being forced to the back of the line. And if you dare to point this out, you just can’t take a fucking joke.
WaterGirl
Hillary’s tweet has a lot of great words that we could use:
Last night, the Supreme Court officially overturned five decades of settled law and permitted Texas’ unconstitutional abortion ban to stand. Yes: They gutted Roe v. Wade without hearing arguments, in a one-paragraph, unsigned 5-4 opinion issued in the middle of the night.
WaterGirl
Same with Sonya Sotamayor:
“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.”
brantl
@Captain C: Yeah, and I guess this belongs on the opinion page of some Texas newspapers, (if they still have any that are worth a shyte) “ACLU where the
f*ckare you? 51% of Texans denied their Constitutional Rights“. I think this strikes to the heart of it; more than 50% of the population are being denied their rights in the state of Texas, by a legal sleight-of-hand.WaterGirl
@brantl: That’s a great point, brant.
Have you thought of contacting the ACLU and asking them nicely where the hell they are on this?
Wolvesvalley
This thread is dead, but I just want to chime in with the opinion that the thing to hammer is the subjection of miscarriages to vigilantism. This is an issue with a powerful emotional component, which can appeal even to the women to whom the very word “abortion” is repugnant, who don’t care if anyone else gets one, who think they themselves would never have or need an abortion. You lost your baby? In the middle of your shock and grief, you’d better lawyer up!