Hold on to your ovaries or grab your testicles because this is going to be a bumpy ride. Starting September 1, 2021, vigilantes can get paid up to $10,000 to engage in bounty hunting for babies. Women in Texas who seek abortions after six weeks could be turned in for a $10,000 reward. This lovely bit of legislation is from the Texas Heartbeat Act and passed through the state legislature in May.
Snitches Get Stitches $10,000
I know bounty hunting for babies sounds like something from The Onion; however, it is unfortunately very real. The Texas Heartbeat Act will allow (nay, encourage IMO) private citizens to sue private medical companies for granting abortions after a heartbeat is detected.
The bounty hunter – who does not even have to live in Texas – simply submits a report and could be given $10,000. Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said “This bill essentially opens the floodgates to allow anyone who is hostile to abortion to sue doctors and clinics, consuming their resources and forcing them to shut down.”4
Ethics is (Apparently) Overrated
This has raised serious ethical questions. Of course, there is a battle between Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. I’m sure you have already made your decision on which side you agree with and reading this blog is unlikely to sway you. What I will cover is the fact that random people (AKA Bounty Hunters) can get REWARDED for investigating someone’s private life and personal medical history.
How can a woman’s health be private when bounty hunting for babies is a thing? What happened to HIPAA? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. How does Texas reconcile this?
We aren’t the only ones who feel this way. Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubi noted, ‘Consider the potential for harassment, spying, extortion and other vengeful behavior directed toward women. The law depends on what others know about her reproductive health and is willing to tell the authorities to grab a $10,000 bounty.’
It’s not only the private medical companies that could be targeted for lawsuits. Anyone who helps a woman get an abortion can be sued. This includes clinics, nurses, and even friends and family. That’s right, your friends can also be sued by someone they don’t know for something they don’t do.
Think about it.
They aren’t the ones getting an abortion, nor are they the person performing the abortion. They are just a friend who somehow knew and/or supported a woman’s right to make a choice. Now they can be sued. This is the most preposterous bit of legislation that I’ve ever heard of coming from a first-world nation that prides itself on freedom.
Of Laziness or Brilliance
I can’t think of another law that relies on ordinary citizens for its policing and enforcement. We already have to deal with out-of-control cops (*Out of control cops link here), but now we are adding possible out-of-control citizens to the mix. And not just any citizens; they may be heavily armed (this is Texas we are talking about 😠) and they are hunting for a huge payday! I’m not sure about you, but $10,000 is a lot of money to us. You could make an entire career out of stalking pregnant women like prey.
Fucking Texas, Man
Maybe they are test driving a means for regular citizens to do the work of police, but without regular pay. Kinda like how corporations implemented self-checkouts to increase profits. If this is the case, do we get to put policing on our resumes? If so, maybe we should increase our job search options.
Let’s Get Real
This law is atrocious for many reasons, but let’s look at one part that we should all be able to agree on: the new law prohibits abortion after six weeks even in the case of incest or rape. Can you imagine if a 12-year-old child is raped by her uncle and cannot get an abortion because it doesn’t come to light that she is pregnant until after the 6-week window?
This is not something that I would expect from the United States of America. Americans are known for being compassionate, bleeding hearts who want to make the world a safer and better place. Denying a woman the right to an abortion in the case of rape is completely lacking in compassion.
And for those who do not experience periods, let me tell you that six weeks is not a long time. I am a grown woman, and my “monthly” cycle is anything but regular. I will often go two or three months without a period. It has been like this since I started my period at the tender age of 10, and I am not an extreme outlier.
Many women have unpredictable cycles. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), between 9 and 14 percent of women have irregular periods 😠.1 Furthermore, it is suggested that women seek medical attention if they haven’t had a period in 90 days.1
Statistics that Boggle
Who Does This Affect
Some of you may be wondering how a female wouldn’t know that they are pregnant. Let’s assume for a minute that we have an adult female who has very regular periods. She tracks her monthly flow religiously. The first sign of pregnancy is usually missing a period, about 2 weeks after you’ve conceived. This isn’t always reliable. It is absolutely possible for a woman to experience her period monthly throughout her entire pregnancy.
But, for the sake of argument, we will assume our subject is not one of those women. That still doesn’t mean she will know that she is pregnant immediately. Some women have a bit of bleeding as the egg embeds. Many women also experience tender breasts. And guess when this happens – that’s right, around the time they would have expected a period. So, our adult female with regular periods which are tracked just bled, on time, making her think that everything is right as rain. Now when she realizes that she’s pregnant, the six-week deadline is behind her.
I can imagine that some of you are still not happy with the previous scenario. For shits and giggles, imagine that our above-mentioned female misses the very next period and she realizes that she is in fact pregnant. This pregnancy was not planned. Maybe she used condoms, birth control, an IUD, or was told she could never have kids. She has a VERY small window to make a life-changing decision and schedule an appointment. I think we can all agree that getting an abortion is a huge decision to make. It’s not the kind of decision that one should be forced to make quickly because of an arbitrary deadline.
Now What
No matter your stance on abortion, I hope that we can all agree that bounty hunting for babies is not the answer. As American’s, we have a right to privacy regarding our healthcare. Plus, I personally don’t feel like getting hunted down by Dog The Bounty Hunter, do you?
Sources
- Sheehan, M. (2019, August 23). Irregular Periods: Why Is My Period Late? Penn Medicine. https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/womens-health/2020/november/irregular-periods-why-is-my-period-late#:~:text=After%20puberty%2C%20many%20women%20have,their%20first%20period%20and%20menopause.
- The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2015 data brief – updated release. National Sexual Violence Resource Center. (n.d.). https://www.nsvrc.org/resource/2500/national-intimate-partner-and-sexual-violence-survey-2015-data-brief-updated-release.
- Relationship Violence Support Services. Denton County Friends of the Family. (n.d.). https://www.dcfof.org/sexual-assault-statistics.
- Sarah Gough, U. S. producer. (2021, May 20). Texas passes ‘heartbeat bill’ – banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/texas-passes-heartbeat-bill-banning-abortions-as-early-as-six-weeks-into-a-pregnancy-12311277
- Gun Ownership By State 2021. (n.d.). https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/gun-ownership-by-state.
Image Credit – Asia Jackowska via TheGreats | Artist Website
