The topic of reproductive rights surrounding women in Texas has been a hot buttoned issue since the closing of many reproductive centers across the state. Recently damaging abortion restrictions were passed and therefore encroached on women’s reproductive rights even more by decreasing access to abortion care. Texas’ 84th Legislature both passed HB 3994 as a law and had it made effective by state governor Greg Abbott on July 8 of this year. This law complicates access to abortion services for mistreated and neglected minors and for those who do not possess specific identification cards in Texas. Specifically, HB 3994 has four requirements of the bill that would explicitly hinder Latina minors. The first provision it that the bill will make …show more content…
One of the biggest barriers against Latina and immigrant women is the bill’s requirement of an ID for the judicial bypass system. HB 3994’s requirement for an ID is unconstitutional and discriminates those Texans who lack one. Such standards create a way for the government to indirectly ban abortion. The bill presumes “that a pregnant woman is a minor unless the woman presents a valid government record of identification showing that she has reached the age of majority” (House Bill 2994, 2015). At-risk populations affected by this bill are: undocumented women, women of low income, and survivors of trafficking. Lack of formal identification could cause members of these groups to dangerously risk themselves in obtaining an ID and could lead to critical delays in their cases. It is not shocking that a number of undocumented women do not possess any form of identification at all since many of them lose their documents during their journey to the U.S. Other women who may have had their ID cards at one time have had them stolen or destroyed by a trafficker or abusive partner (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2015). Lastly, we should consider that these populations could have a form of ID from their birth country, but these documents may be expired, making it harder to replace them without returning back to their countries. This ID barrier paired with the state’s continual closure of abortion clinics in …show more content…
The impacts of this bill could cause an upsurge in unwanted children for unmarried minorities who do not have the resources or the support to care for their children. Single mothers are more likely to experience high poverty rates due to low income, lack of family support and limited public benefits too. This especially hits hard the already poor Hispanic population living in Texas. In continuing with these provisions, Texas is setting itself up for economic and social hardships in the future. Consequences of this bill would widen the already prevalent racial disparities seen in social services and income
This law requires states to have a process established for conducting criminal background checks for foster and adoptive parents in order to care for children. It is said that provisions in the law have had an impact on the process of being approved for foster care and adoption. It has slowed down the process for children to be placed with relatives as well. Under the new provisions states are required to conduct ...
... In the next year after the law going into effect, 33 babies were abandoned in Texas, most at hospitals, while 14 were left in dangerous situations. This year the number remains the about the same, but there were five cases reported in which women bore children elsewhere and then dropped them off at a hospital or firehouse. Three of those women said they had been prompted to do so by the law.
It is unfortunate that this article only very briefly discusses pregnant, black incarcerated women, and the lack of prenatal care they are provided with during
Abortion is a topic that many don’t want to discuss. It’s a very personal decision that many women have to make each day, but in certain states, getting an abortion was becoming an even more difficult process. Not only did women have to decide to get an abortion that alone is a difficult choice, they now had to wait 24 hours, minors had to get consent, and/or inform the father of the child. But after all of this process, what if a woman couldn’t receive all of this? Would she be denied her right to get an abortion? The Supreme Court case, Planned Parenthood of PA v. Casey, wasn’t known for what it did, but mainly for what it did not do, which was not overruling Roe v. Wade, but reaffirming a woman’s right to an abortion; it questioned a state’s right to impose or place an “undue burden” on women.
According to Zastrow (2014), women burdened by unwanted children cannot receive proper job training (p. 560). If women who are already struggling have children, they will not be able to afford childcare, resulting in staying home and not working. Therefore, these women and their children are trapped in a vicious poverty and welfare cycle. Studies have shown that women who are denied access to an abortion are more likely to face financial hardships and receive public assistance after the denial. Women denied the procedure are three times as likely to end up below the federal poverty line, in comparison to women who are able to obtain care (The EACH Woman Act (H.R. 2972), 2016). Additionally, the children suffer especially if they live have to live in poverty with unmet needs. If there are bans on funding, women do not get the final say regarding their family structure. They do not have the autonomy to limit their families to the number of children they desire and can physically and emotionally manage to pay for. Because its effects resonate beyond the policy realm, there has been discontent with the Hyde Amendment since it was enacted in the
Currently, there are 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States; 6 million of those immigrants are Mexican-born (Preston). Within that undocumented population are individuals who were brought to the States as children. These individuals have grown up in the American culture and consider themselves American, but struggle with being treated as second class citizens due to their undocumented status. On June fifteenth of 2012, the Obama Administration announced the executive order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This order will allow immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children to apply for work permits and avoid deportation (Hennessey and Bennett). President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is not only beneficial to it applicants but also to the United States as a whole.
Texas, being the second largest state in the United States, has a very large and ethnically varied population. Since 1850, Texas has had more of a population growth in every decade than that of the entire population of the United States. Texas' population is growing older as the people of the post World War II reach their middle ages. It's estimated that the people over the age of 64 in Texas will more than double by the year 2020 in Texas. Four out of every ten Texans are either African American or Hispanic with the remainder predominately white. There are a small but very rapidly growing number of Asians and fewer than 70,000 Native Americans. The diverse set of ethnic groups in Texas causes a big impact on laws and legislature in Texas.
“It is my conviction that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions or advocate or actively promote abortion either here or abroad,” Bush stated in his memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City Policy. However, the policy does not state that funds will be withheld if the US taxpayer’s money is used; it states that monies will be withheld if abortion services are offered at all, even if it is not US money. Douglas Johnson the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee states, the “government will no longer..try to legalize abortion in countries in Latin America, Africa, and Muslim countries in which people are strongly opposed to abortion and believe in the protection of unborn children.” What Johnson fails to recognize is that in countries where abortion is legal women’s rights are being compromised. U.S. Representative Christopher H. Smith expresses his feelings in his article “A Congressional View: The Unborn Must be Protected” (Global Issues Electronic Journal) by stating, “Abortion is child abuse.” Smith also comments that when the policy was previously in effect it had no affect on the family planning money received by NGO’s. It may not have affected the money received but it did affect women who were denied the option of abortion services.
Through out the history of the constitution of california there has been a number of attempts to change how abortion in teens is handled. Proposition 4 intends to give the parents the right to know when their unmancipated teens want to get an abortion. some supporters of this proposition argue that it will save lives and money for the state. People against it say is more dangerous to teens because they could be driven to use not regulated clinics and or to run away from home. In this research paper we will go through both points of view, and also the implications of continuing with the current constitution or changing it as the proposition 4 dictates.
Black men in Jail are having drastic effects upon the black community. The first and arguably most important effect is that it intensifies the problem of single parent households within the black community. When these men are sentenced to prison, they, many times, leave behind a wife/girlfriend and/or children. If they have already have had children, that child must spend multiple years of his/her early life without a primary father figure. In addition, that male's absence is even more prominently felt when the woman has to handle all of the financial responsibilities on her own. This poses even more problems since women are underpaid relative to men in the workforce, childcare costs must be considered, and many of these women do not have the necessary skills to obtain a job, which would pay a living wage, which could support her and the children. Black male incarceration has done much to ensure that black female-headed households are now equal with poverty.
No other element of the Women’s Rights Movement has generated as much controversy as the debate over reproductive rights. As the movement gained momentum so did the demand for birth control, sex education, family planning and the repeal of all abortion laws. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision which declared abortion "fundamental right.” The ruling recognized the right of the individual “to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” (US Supreme Court, 1973) This federal-level ruling took effect, legalizing abortion for all women nationwide.
Abortion is a very controversial word. It is not something to be taken lightly whether you are against it or for it. When I say for it, I mean pro choice. Pro-choice to me means being able to decide what I want to do with my body, I am not for abortion. Of course I would rather see a fetus come to life but that is not choice. Whichever your feelings are, there are reasons why the new Texas laws hurt women and could be a gateway to more of our rights being taken away.
In the absence of an agreement determining when life begins, state sovereignty has allowed state legislators the authority to shape a state’s policy on abortion. Thus, what has occurred across the United States is the ability for states to enact legislation which places severe limitations on when and how a pregnancy may be te...
With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the majority of Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this private choice for herself. Anti-choice proposals to ban abortions for “sex-selection” or “birth-control” are smokescreens designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this issue and trivialize the seriousness with which millions of women make this highly personal decision. Any government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force all women to publicly justify their reasons for seeking abortion.
Millions of illegal abortions were done by the 1950s, and over a thousand women died each year as result. Moreover, millions of women who had illegal abortions were rushed to the emergency ward; some died of abdominal infection, and other, found themselves sterile and chronically ill. In 1969, 75% of the women who died from these abortions were either poor or of color. In the landmark case of Roe v. Wade (1973) the Supreme Court ruled that woman had the right of privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to obtain an abortion, yet, keeping in mind that, protecting the health of the woman and the potential life of the fetus is the main interest. As result of this decision, safe and unpainful abortion services were offered to many women. In addition, some health care centers provided counseling, women’s group offered free referral services, and, non-profit abortion facilities were created. Nevertheless, legalization was not enough to ensure that abortions will be available to all women, women of low income and of color still found themselves without safe and inexpensive abortions. Between the early 1980s, feminist health centers provided low-cost abortions, however, by the early 1990s, only 20% of these centers survived the harassment by the IRS and the competition of other