Donations to abortion funds are down but the need is greater than ever. Texans face longer travel, higher costs, and more barriers to care.
Our Intake Director, Charlie Hughes, spoke with @marytuma.bsky.social at @texasobserver.org about how TEA Fund continues to show up for our communities.
Update on Texas state rep and conservative, Christian Giovanni Capriglione saga: Current Revolt, a far right publication ran the story this morning and his mistress is already taking to socials. This is going to be messy! 🍿#txlege
I could not agree more. We're still here.
So thankful for the orgs that are still showing up for us, here.
Picture of Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon Ratliffe in the third season of white lotus. He is looking over his shoulder with tears in his eyes and look of longing. 
Watching abortion clinics opening up in non-ban states. Wish that could be us.
Very important thread from the Board Chair of @prhdocs.bsky.social about why many reproductive health physicians and experts are *opposing* SB 31 and HB 44 (which many Texas Democrats are touting as a necessary abortion exception bill)
CONGRATS Y'ALL!!!!!
And finally, my statement in my role as Board Chair for @prhdocs.bsky.social
prh.org/press-releas...
You can find your reps using this link.
They are all in Austin now, so call their Austin office.
wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home
We NEED your help.
Please help me, help us, keep working to save the lives of Texans.
Call your representatives and ask them to listen to the Texas abortion experts.
Tell them to either take the advice of the experts
and fix the bill or oppose SB31/ HB 44.
Abortion doctors in Texas oppose SB31/HB44
Abortion patients in Texas oppose the bill
Abortion funds in Texas oppose the bill
Abortion rights orgs in Texas oppose the bill
Abortion lawyers in Texas oppose the bill
So why are TX Dems advancing the bill?
Why won’t SB 31/ HB 44 help?
Because the language changes are not meaningful or substantive.
Because the chilling effect of the bans still exists.
Because there are only a few skilled abortion providers in the state.
Because an abortion ban with a cute bow is still an abortion ban.
In addition to this game of secret password,
The bill REQUIRES new, state-mandated education for OBGYNs ONLY.
No other docs.
The lege is trying to say WE are at fault for people dying.
Not abortion bans.
Rather than passing meaningful laws,
they want me to take a State Propaganda course.
Soooo...life-threatening then?
Not only is this NOT a clear definition for “medical emergency,” but also…
Is it even a definition?
Is it a typo?
Were we even supposed to be directed here?
I can’t save a single, additional life with this language.
We are playing word games with people’s lives.
“in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment, the pregnant [person]...has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the [person] at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function…”
Doctors across the state have been confused
as to what constitutes a “medical emergency”
The bill attempts to define “medical emergency,”
saying it’s defined by Section 170A.002(b)(2)
What’s that section say?
I’ll tell you, but when you read it,
you’ll be more confused.
Why is the bill a word game?
Dems are saying this bill is a fix because
it strikes out “life threatening” from the ban.
But literally the next line in the ban still says,
“places the female at risk of death”
You don’t need to be an English major
to know that sentence still has the same meaning.
But SB31/ HB44 resurrects that dead ban.
It paves the way to criminalize abortion funds,
abortion support networks,
doctors that provide abortion information (like me),
and even people getting abortions and their families.
This bill will not help me save a single life,
but endangers many.
SB31/ HB 44 is another abortion ban,
wrapped up in a word game.
TxDems think it adds clarifying language
that will help me/us save lives,
But it doesn’t.
Instead, it revives a 100+ year old abortion ban
that I sued Ken Paxton over in 2022.
I sued to make sure that ban was dead and I won.
#TxDems are saying this bill is a “fix”
to our harmful abortion bans.
I really wish that were true.
I am the person that provides that life saving care.
The reality is, this bill will not help me save a single life,
But, it will endanger thousands more lives in the process.
I am one of the FEW abortion doctors left in Texas.
I am Board Certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology
AND Board Certified in Complex Family Planning
I am a Texas #abortion expert
Some might say, I’m THE Texas abortion expert
I oppose SB31/ HB 44
Why?
Screenshot from The New Republic The idea here is to try to gross people out to support a law that's not principally about water but rather is designed to drastically limit access to medication abortion—and to make people afraid of the drugs, as if they're some kind of dangerous chemical. This scare campaign to give people "the ick" is a bit absurd to Moayedi, who still remembers the first time she saw a C-section in medical school and being shocked at just how much force surgeons use to open the abdominal cavity. The procedure is, to some extent, violent, she said-as are orthopedic surgeries using power tools. "We are made of bones and blood and nerves and connections, and that's what medicine is about," she said. "The focus on trans health care or abortion care specifically being something different than the rest is really just a myopic view of what the reality is." Caring for bodies necessarily involves some amount of blood.
Screenshot from The New Republic: Conservatives are using stigmatizing language as an intentional tactic to demonize the people who need this care and to discredit those who provide it, said Ma'ayan Anafi, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center. "This is well-studied care. It's care that's provided according to well-established standards," Anafi said. "The goal of this kind of inflammatory language is to make it sound experimental and dangerous." Framing abortion and gender-affirming care this way creates a chilling effect that can lead to violence against providers and threats against health care clinics. "This strategy of vilifying providers has a real-world impact," they said. "It both discourages providers from offering care that they want to provide, and it means that patients need to also be weighing their own safety and their own privacy when they're trying to access the care they need."
Thanks to @prhdocs.bsky.social / @dr-moayedi.bsky.social and @nwlc.org for explaining how this is all just a ruse to try to get people to accept oppression
newrepublic.com/article/1918...
It was "unintentional"
Actually, the consequences were fully intended.
If you're thinking about supporting an "abortion exceptions" bill in Texas right now...think twice.
Look at the people behind it.
Follow the money.
I'll wait.
txmotherscampaign.com/about/
I have a twice-weekly newsletter! I wrote about pronatalists -- of which #ElonMusk is probably the most famous one --- and how they basically want 21st century eugenics and JD Vance is a fucking loser. www.marybadthings.com/p/a-bunch-of...
🫠
Almost 90 minutes later & 3 Walgreens pharmacies later and I've finally got Ella called in. The pharmacist had "never dispensed this before" and wasn't sure if "this will get flagged"....ma'am, it's emergency contraception.
15 minutes on hold with the next Walgreens...at least they answered, but they don't have Ella in stock. They were able to look up who might have it in stock. Now to find out which ones are still open tonight and if the database is true.
45 minutes of holding and the Walgreens pharmacy closed w/o answering....now to call the next pharmacy that might be open in the area of the patient I'm caring for....
I've been on hold with a Walgreens now for 20 minutes, just to talk to someone to see if they have Ella in stock.
The new automated process at CVS is a nightmare, b/c I can't talk to pharmacy staff directly anymore - leave a message and get a call back later....
Asking about abortion is part of my screening for almost anyone I hire. I provide abortion care and you are about to be paid with abortion money....you cool or no?
