Finding God in a Dog

The Good: Today a Federal judge ruled that two of the worst provisions of the odious, stupid Texas abortion law are unconstitutional, and blocked them from being enforced. The blocked provisions are:

• The requirement that providers have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital


• The requirement that doctors follow the FDA's original label for an abortion-inducing drug, regardless of future findings

The Bad: Two more odious provisions of the same law were not part of this lawsuit and are still, for now, scheduled to go into effect next year. These are:

• A ban on abortions after 20 weeks


• A requirement that abortions be performed at ambulatory surgical centers - a requirement that only five out of 42 Texas clinics currently meet.

Nonetheless, chances are pretty good that those will be stricken down too, sometime next year.

It should be noted that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes all of these measures as medically without merit, so you can forget all that bible-fueled horseshit about this being about women's health.

The ugly: It should go without saying that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot, a theocratic Republican who is running for Governor, will appeal this ruling to the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is, in fact, the actual intention of this bill. The Texas GOP knows that this law is absolutely in violation of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. They're hoping that they can use this law to create a legal precedent to weaken Roe and PP protections. The odds are fair that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will give them such a precedent. (This same Court of Appeals recently upheld a ban on Texas funds to Planned Parenthood, for example.) With enough such precedents, and maybe a well-timed retirement on the Supreme Court, they could do away with Roe entirely.

That's the long game here, ladies and gents. And that's why I'm not exactly thrilled with the judge's decision. It's a good thing for women that this law has been blocked, of course, but the long game is what makes me nervous. We're going to need Democrats, or those who would caucus with the Democrats, in the White House and in the U. S. Senate, to put more abortion-friendly federal judges and Supreme Court Justices on the bench, and ensure that the theocrats continue to lose the long game.

This is chess, kids.