Get ready for highway checkpoints for pregnant women, coming to a red state near you.

Atwood specifically called it speculative fiction, because everything written in there had happened already in some other form.

The correct answer is “I don’t want to talk about my day.”

You're missing the right to privacy in your phone. Make sure you didn't put the clinic into Google maps or make a call to them ahead of time. Governmental AI is on the way and it will be steered by the same people making these rules.

It basically gives them an excuse to detain any woman they want, which is the purpose.

LEAs have been shown to actively track women who use search engines or messaging services to seek information about abortion services. There's a non-zero chance that women who they suspect, and their friends and family, are tagged in their system when they search the plates of someone passing by.

It's not about lying to cops, particularly if they can already prove you were seeking those services in the first place. At that point they'll arrest you with probable cause.

They already use that kind of system with drug dealers. If they suspect you sell drugs, they will tag your name and plate and find a reason to pull you over if they spot you. Why would they hesitate to track women like that?

Easy, women shouldn't be allowed to use highways period. Then they won't be able to drive to abortions.

Fuck it, women shouldn't be allowed to drive. Long live the United States of Saudi Arabia!

They cannot because they do not have jurisdiction at all. You can't prosecute someone for doing something legal in another area.

When pulled over, any interaction beyond what is required by law should be not answered or answered with something along the lines of invoking the 5th. There are a bazillion YouTube lawyers that all the say this.

If you need directions, put in something that isn't the abortion place, but has it along the way, like a national park or other tourist place, some conference, etc. Then put in the real destination when you get across the border.

These types of laws tend to rely on someone close to the pregnant person calling the cops, usually family. These communities passing these laws are full of people who would eagerly jail their children for getting an abortion.

The big issue is that it's not law enforcement that enforce this, it's everyday people - and those people are given immunity by this law.

Just some advice here: don’t answer questions.

A cop pulls you over “I don’t answer questions”, “I’d like to speak to a lawyer.”, “I do not consent to a search.”, “I would like to speak to a lawyer.”

If they keep asking questions. Do not respond with anything other than “I would like to speak to a lawyer.” Be polite; but you are far more likely to incriminate yourself than not.

The more you say, they more they can use against you.

I think it would likely be used to add extra charges after the fact ie did you get caught? Then you must have also commited this crime on top of the others. Then again I might be ascribing logic where there is none.

Straight up intimidation. Women will now be pulled over and asked questions that are nobody's business, not to mention it gets more women pulled over and in danger of being assaulted by police.

Depends. Are they black/brown?

Easy. Arrest all pregnant women traveling.

Who is going to stop them?

They could just have checkpoints on the exit roads on the state. There are a lot of things Texas republicans are doing with police, namely allowing them to be border patrol agents with authority to deport people. This, along with precedent being pushed that police can find probable cause after the fact that you’re arrested, police can just arrest first because they saw a women “who looked pregnant.” I foresee women becoming second class citizens really soon in red states, and its really troubling.

was settled by the courts in 1824.

Nothing is "settled" with the current Supreme Court.

SCOTUS allowed the abortion bounty law SB8 to stand before Roe was overturned. It was clearly unconstitutional. So, they're just expanding on it to the next logical steps.

Something something it's not commerce because reasons.

Nevermind that the Commerce Clause has been cited to give the federal government authority to prohibit activities that are neither commerce nor inter-state, such as growing cannabis for personal use on your own property.

Schroedinger's commerce. It's commerce only when it's convenient for prohibitionists.

IANAL: how exactly is this going to get overturned? The courts have already gotten rid of offender observer standing so the only way would be if this is actually enforced at which point the Supreme Court could simply allow the appeals court ruling stand.

Texans are some of the most delusional people on the planet.

For some reason, even the democrats there think it's better than states like Florida. It isn't.

The only state that is objectively worse than Texas is Louisiana, and that's saying something.

Also I'd like to add:

How about this worthless board look into why there is so much crime in the county before Talibaning travel for women?

You have a 1 in 92 chance of being a victim of violent crime in Lubbock County compared to a 1 in 220 chance in the rest of Texas

My first thought as well. There is NO way this doesn't get struck down in a court case. If you can't even ban guns on streets near schools (US v. Lopez) then you definitely can't ban a person from driving on a road to get to a medical procedure in a different state.

My guess is this is what will doom this law, specifically since they're also looking at drugs which are certainly commodities from out of state.

It might also be a prior restraint case depending on if traveling to a women's healthcare provider is protected expression.

Like, the problem for the county here is trying to stop people from doing something they can't prove they're actually going to do.

They might be able to plus up other charges based on using county property in the commission of some other "crime" (gigantic air quotes). Sort of like getting extra charges due to using the USPS to commit a crime.

I think getting the fuck out of Texas is exactly what this legislation is attempting to prevent. If they get away with this, I'd doubt they'll stop there, either. Never mind abortion, this will set the precedent that they can legally "prevent" you from using public road infrastructure for any particular purpose they feel like.

It doesn't take a legal expert to see why the line of reasoning they're using to justify this is horseshit, nor to grasp just how dangerous this type of thing is.

That's often easier said then done

That's easy to say, not so simple to do. Especially when friends and family ask why you are moving far from them ans your job. To speak nothing of the costs for Interstate moving.

Can't let this virus spread. It has to be fought at the source.

Texas bans Woman ...
Woman ban Texas !

Maybe women should just GTFO of Texas

That's the idea. Republicans want a permanent majority in Texas, and they're making the state as inhospitable as possible to anyone who might vote against them.

Dude shut up! They do not need new ideas!!!

Gilead has entered the chat

Honestly, yes. The nominal reason we give states federal money for highways that there's a benefit to other states from one state having highways passing through it. If you're not going to non-selectively give use of your highways, you're not universally benefiting your neighboring states, so you shouldn't get the money.

Now, the actual reason we take tax money from people in one state, give it to the federal government, just to have the it dish the money back out to the states is so the federal government gets a bunch of leverage over the states. It's not actually efficient to collect a bunch of money, which costs money, and then give most of it back, which also costs money. It's about control.

Texas hates women ftfy

Need more slaves for the private prison industry.

Yeah but she's be black, or poor or queer so it's okay

The officer had to save the life of the fetus. (by shooting the person keeping it alive)

Pregnancy check road blocks sure sound fun

And then they scream "freedom" and wave flags like it means something.

Who was the comedian that said "The party of government so small you can shove it up your vagina" or something to that effect.

Not just those getting an abortion, but anyone helping them. It's designed to isolate pregnant women so that they have no one to turn to if they need help.

Or more worryingly, used as an excuse by cops to stop any woman they want whenever they want on suspicion they're trying to get an abortion.

And then they can force women to take pregnancy tests on the spot, which will require stripping for giving urine samples, giving police plausible deniability to rape whoever they want.

Mark my words, it WILL happen.

just how can anyone think this is a good idea.

Oh, that's an easy one! Fascists.

Cookers?

They just care that it sounds good to pro-life voters and donors who haven't thought too hard about it.

Brain Cheney tells me that we should give them the one freedom they truly want, and un-annex them.

But that, of course, is needlessly cruel and would only punish innocent folks trying to survive in what is already a hellscape.

Surely they have a model foster care system!

It's a sanctuary for the unborn, not the already born. The already born can (and will) get fucked.

People always say this, but it's not as strong of an argument as they think it is. Religious conservative people, especially Christians, give to charity quite a lot, actually. They just hear that argument and think, "this person doesn't know what they're talking about, we obvious do care about the already born, I can comfortably dismiss everything they say now."

Probably blocking the road

Unfortunately, the legal precedent that protected a woman's right to get an abortion was overturned by the SCOTUS and now we've got a complete mish-mash of state and local laws being created to test the boundaries of what they can do.

The bigots dictate the law now and everyone lets them because no one wants to overthrow those evil local governments, not even legally through elections.

Full faith and credit only works in one direction; towards Texas.

Idk, I get the feeling that they want OB/GYNs to leave. I think they want women to suffer and die in childbirth, just as God intended.

Conservatives know that the enforcement will be selective, and that's exactly what they want.

They will only change their minds when it directly affects them.

This makes Texans look weak honestly. Letting these politicians walk all over them.

As long as it's hurting the "right people", they will support it 100%, and by the time their little brains realize they're not part of the in-group they think they are, it'll be far too late.

Republicans will literally give up everything for guns and pro life stuff.

Republicans do not care about freedom or personal liberty. Texas is pretty red with the exception of the major cities. The majority of the state is roughly in favor of these decisions.

Big government for thee but not for me!

I feel like we should be pulling funding anyhow.

“Oh. You want to secede? Well about this. We’ll do a transitional period. We won’t send you money, and you won’t send us taxes. Talk to you in about a decade. Hope a hurricane doesn’t hit, cuz that’d suck… also, your citizens won’t be paying into or benefit from Social Security… and also? We’re setting up a customs control point on your border, and your people need a visa.

“Also you get to deal with Mexico if they choose to take steps because you’re an asshole.”

Texas, as well as plenty other states, aren't even in full compliance with the ADA which is a law over 30 years old, it's an ongoing fight that really started with the legal case Olmstead vs LC and moved into the seeking of consent decrees in recent years. To my knowledge none of the states that are infracting the ADA have been threatened with funding revocation or financial penalties of any kind. I doubt money will play any part of this. They'll just run it through the courts until the people who are doing this dont have jobs anymore I'd wager, if they do anything at all.

It's like Saudi Arabia, where women are completely free to do exactly what men tell them to do.

It's civilian enforced. So say a person overhears a woman telling her friend that they are leaving tomorrow to drive to another state for an abortion. The person can sue her (and anyone helping her) for violating this law. If they win, they get a chunk of cash and the "satisfaction" of knowing they are oppressing women.

It's designed to not only deter women from getting abortions, but to deter people from helping them. If you were in Texas and a friend asked you to drive her to get an abortion in another state, you'd need to weigh the possibility of being sued. You might decide it was too much of a risk for you and not help. And that's what they are hoping to achieve.

Since this ridiculous ordinance is to only be enforced by private lawsuits, I suggest that pro-choice activists keep watch on the legal filings around this and publish the name of anyone who files one of these suits. Make a website, keep a list of names and addresses of every person who files one of these suits against another American.

Name and shame these fascists in front of the world. Court filings are public records generally so this would not be private information to "doxx" anyone with.

Imagine how they'd tear their hair out if there was a law to confiscate guns from people who didn't pass a background check for it, and it was enforced only by private citizens.

They're fucking craven hypocrites, but what else is new?

When Kavanaugh of all people isn't defending your law, you done fell off the Right Edge.

I don't think they're concerned about the constitution at this point.

Begins? I'd say "returns" at best, but more probably "continues" or "intensifies".

I'm sure the gun-hoarders will come out in droves to fight it now, right?

Yes but they seem to hate other women

Why are you censoring yourself? Just say it.

Time to take out the Texas legislature and put in a new government that will actually protect its people.

There. They're just words. Stop being afraid of words.

Yup! The second my contract is up I'm out of here and never looking back!

In the meantime, I'll vote, and pressure others to do so as well. I'm trying to remain optimistic, but I gotta tell you, watching Greg Abbott get re-elected nearly made me lose hope in this state. I'm still hoping it can be turned around, but that hope is hanging on via life support at this point. And if Republicans still remain in power when I'm out, then fuck this state. I did my best while I was here.

Which reminds me, it's time for me to re-up my Deputy Voters Registrar cert in my county! Let the drives begin!

Just gotta wait till it snows and their power grid breaks

Not anymore it doesn't. The illegitimate "supreme court" has ruled that states have the sole authority to create and enforce laws related to abortion.

Conservatism is a plague of oppression. It always has been. Teach your children why it's immoral to keep company with conservatives.

I think the same thing every time I have had to visit over the last several years. Fuck everything about that insane shithole.

Unfortunately no. This is some stupid fuck running around convincing all of these counties to pass these ridiculous laws all based on his belief. And people are just falling in line. Here you go. This dickhead: "At the helm of legislation and the campaign to ban abortion-related transit in Texas is Mark Lee Dickson, a Christian pastor who began pushing communities to outlaw abortion by declaring themselves "sanctuary cities for the unborn" in 2019."

Thats already happening

By allowing the mother to live freely and not be in a jail cell the moment they have sex, they are aiding and abetting them.

As much as allowing them to own a bank account with which to purchase mifepristone, I'm sure...

So that needs a question answered, very badly. How many lawsuits could a 'concerned party' file against every city on the road between a pregnant woman and another state? A few hundred per abortion? If you hit them over the head enough, maybe local politics would turn against the idiocy of the abortion lawsuit law, and that could filter to the state level?

So in principle, if you get sued over this by an abusive spouse, he could:

• Never tell you

• Hide the mail

• Show up to court that day and you don't

• Cackle maniacally as the judge signs a bench warrant for his victim's arrest she doesn't know about

• He now can get her thrown in jail whenever she acts up, e.g. runs away or fights back

• The legal system is now his personal army

And we pretend that democracy, rule of law and the legal system is supposed to be capable of protecting innocent people from abusers and preventing tyranny. We pretend it was ever even able to, let alone willing.

We obviously need something better.

"the private enforcement mechanism" -- which is essentially an end run around restrictions on what the government is technically not allowed to do itself, by heavily implying that they want something done instead of explicitly hiring someone to do it. "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Nope, no tickets or cops involved. Article says that it would be enforced by private lawsuits, not law enforcement.

In other words they can't stop anybody from traveling for that reason, they just want to be able to punish them with lawsuits out of pettiness.

It's the same private citizen enforcement that was done for the Texas abortion ban in the first place. It does an end run around the Constitution and case law where it's not technically the state doing any of the enforcement.

Or more accurately pull over and rape/murder any woman who drives

They'll pull a Reagan and outlaw weapons for anyone they don't intend to have one.