Let’s Mess With Texas

For a long time now, Florida has been the undisputed champion in the ‘Worst U.S. State’ competition, and the exploits of Florida Man are legendary. However, Texas was never going to take that lying down.
Their new abortion law is both a step back in time, and a step toward a dystopian future, all in one. It’s bad enough banning all abortions (Rape? Incest? No matter) after 6 weeks. A lot of women don’t even know they are pregnant at 6 weeks. But that’s not the worst part of the law.
It seeks to punish anybody who aids in an abortion. If you give your girlfriend a ride up to Oklahoma, you could be arrested for it. If you give somebody money for an abortion, you could be arrested for it. If you are a doctor performing an abortion, or a nurse assisting that doctor, you could be arrested for it. But that’s not the worst part of this law.
There is a clause in the law which allows, even encourages people to inform on anyone they know who has performed, or received an abortion. These kind of narc on your neighbor laws are despicable. They absolutely bring out the worst in people and make it so nobody can trust anyone else. But that’s not the worst part of this law.
If somebody informs on you, and you are charged and found guilty, that informant will receive an award of $10,000. Now, I know inflation keeps eating into it and $10,000 is not what is used to be, but that’s still a whole lot of money to a whole lot of people. There may well be cases where somebody isn’t particularly opposed to abortion, and they don’t even hate you, but they need the money and will report you to get it. That’s the worst aspect of this law, IMO. Solving poverty by making everybody a police informant.
I don’t know what can be done about it. The Supreme Court is not going to help, a clear majority of them are extreme right wingers and at least one is a rapist.
I did see a couple of people this morning recommending boycotts of Texas, one specifically suggesting that all musicians refuse to perform in Texas, which sounds kind of weak but nobody playing Sun City was a big part of what brought apartheid down in South Africa. I agree with the suggestion. Everybody should mess with Texas in any way they can.