Reason and Radical

Texas Ayatollahs

This is just so horrible.

The ayatollahs of Texas passed a law in 2003 that requires that abortions from 16 weeks onward be performed only in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Basically, nearly none actually perform abortions.

So, with no place to get an abortion after 16 weeks, what does a panicky, 17-year-old girl do if she's four months pregnant? Erica Basoria decided to try to induce a miscarriage. When that didn't work, she asked her boyfriend to step on her stomach. A week later she miscarried.

This is all bad enough, but what comes next is fantastically worse: Texas also has a shiny new law criminalizing "fetal murder," and the fact that Basoria wanted a miscarriage in this case doesn't matter. Her boyfriend, Gerardo Flores of Lufkin, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his part in this tragic comic opera:

posted by Leimodnu @ 3:20 PM