Coupled with the bounty available for reporting those implicated and the extreme limitations on who can access reproductive care legally, abortion is effectively banned across TexasLorie Shaull

Content note: this article contains discussion of abortion.

Attacks on reproductive rights are a tradition in the state of Texas. Since the landmark ruling of ’Roe vs Wade’, the state has introduced complex legislation in the pursuit of limiting access to abortion. From mandatory ultrasounds and limiting state funding towards reproductive healthcare all the way to legally required yet medically inaccurate “Women’s Rights to Know” pamphlets, the last 20 years of Texan legislation has attacked reproductive rights from every angle. But with this new ‘heartbeat act’, the long fight on abortion has emerged with new tactics; the ability of any party “with vested interest” to sue those aiding and inducing abortions after six weeks.

“Whilst it is easy to depict Texas as a dangerous and regressive outsider, feminists, policymakers, and leaders must confront the reality that reproductive rights remain insecure and continually challenged”

The introduction of such a right has been likened to a witch hunt, as it enables the public to sue those involved for a minimum of $10,000. Coupled with the bounty available for reporting those implicated and the extreme limitations on who can access reproductive care legally, abortion is effectively banned across Texas.

Amongst personal stories of those fighting these repressive laws and comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale, the reality gets lost. Texas is not an exemption in a so-called liberal feminist West, Texas is the rule itself.

Whilst it is easy to depict Texas as a dangerous and regressive outsider, feminists, policymakers, and leaders must confront the reality that reproductive rights remain insecure and continually challenged. The West has long placed itself in opposition to those who would endanger women’s rights, utilising feminism as a political and strategic tool. This dichotomy not only ignores the complex global picture of female oppression and liberation but omits the struggles of women inside this ‘liberal’ order for its own political gain.

“Whilst some argued it was simply a resource issue, for others, Covid became an ally to Europe’s right-wing populists and allowed them to expand their powers under the illusion of pandemic measures”

If we look internally, the picture shows how events in Texas are a standard rather than an extreme in the current climate. In the UK, it was only in 2020 that widespread access to abortion was legalised. Before this, there was a near-total ban on abortion in Northern Ireland, even in extreme cases. Despite breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, Northern Ireland continued to prosecute those seeking abortions, with such actions hitting the poorest, most vulnerable women. Whilst formal decriminalisation took place last year, access to abortion in Nothern Ireland remains fraught. Services remain dependent on overstretched voluntary sources and access remains ambiguous, with campaigners arguing the DUP are making abortion purposefully difficult to access.


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Covid-19 has brought further challenges for reproductive rights and access. For many women living in states with oppressive reproductive laws, their only option relied on their ability to travel into neighbouring areas where abortion is legal. However, the lack of international travel, expensive PCR tests and isolation periods within the Covid-19 context mean that the ability to seek abortions across their own borders has become an impossibility.

Many governments have used Covid-19 measures as a guise to limit and attack access to abortive and reproductive care. Draconian measures in Romania even limited abortion measures by deeming it a ’non-essential service’, in which the BBC reported that only 11 out of Romania’s 280 hospitals were providing abortive services during the peak of the coronavirus crisis. Campaigners argue that this was just another action taken by Romanian officials to phase out abortion. Other nations such as Slovakia, Italy, and Croatia, all saw the rolling back of services during the pandemic. Whilst some argued it was simply a resource issue, for others, coronavirus became an ally to Europe’s right-wing populists and allowed them to expand their powers under the illusion of pandemic measures. In Poland, attempts to pass the ‘Stop Abortion’ bill were pushed through parliament using expanded powers due to Covid, meaning a near-total abortion ban was implemented in early 2021.

The landscape of reproductive rights globally is an unequal one that remains challenged by populist powers, social upheaval and ultra-conservatism. The horrors in Texas appeared to shock much western feminist discourse, citing a regression of women’s rights. However, this is not simply a move backwards, but a reflection of the present, in which Texas fits into a global picture where reproductive services remain insecure and inaccessible. Anti-abortion sentiment, rhetoric, and policy is not a rarity as the liberal West would have us believe, but a reality for far too many.