If Texas leaders want to protect life, where are masks, vaccines, resources for kids?

Suzette Hackney, USA TODAY
·2 min read

Let’s take a look at American logic today.

Mask mandates for adults and students during a raging COVID-19 global pandemic? That’s an egregious infringement on individual freedoms.

A safe and approved vaccination that scientists and medical professionals say can help eradicate said global pandemic? It’s a personal decision everyone should make for themselves.

Access to a legal abortion in Texas after six weeks gestation? Nope.

My, how quickly the "my body, my choice" crowd can vacillate. When is it OK to control my body? The hypocrisy is endless. And enraging.

The U.S. Supreme Court let a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks gestation take effect.
The U.S. Supreme Court let a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks gestation take effect.

A bill signed into law in May that went into effect Wednesday offers a $10,000 or more bounty for suing a doctor, clinic staff or anyone who transports or helps to terminate a pregnancy at six weeks gestation or later. Snitch on someone who is deciding, along with a health care professional, what is best for her body and get rewarded for it.

The law makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape. In a statement Wednesday, President Joe Biden said the legislation “blatantly violates” the constitutional right to abortion codified by Roe vs. Wade.

Is this real life?

The Supreme Court refused on Wednesday to block the law, ensuring it will remain in effect as it makes it way through what will likely be lengthy legal battles in lower courts. The 5-4 ruling, handed down one minute before midnight, all but offers a green light for other states that have for years tried to implement heavy-handed barriers to abortion to craft similar legislation.

People demonstrate in front of a women's health clinic Oct. 4 in McAllen, Texas.
People demonstrate in front of a women's health clinic Oct. 4 in McAllen, Texas.

"In effect, the Texas Legislature has deputized the State's citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors' medical procedures," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissent.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is wrongheaded about many things – COVID-19, environmental regulations that would address climate change, gun control, voting rights and even red meat. He's proudly #ProLife and stated in a Wednesday tweet: "Texas will always defend the right to life."

Except when it won't.

According to the annual Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2021 KIDS COUNT Data Book report, Texas is ranked 46 out of 50 states for overall child well-being. These statistics track the realities of children who already live in the state – those in poverty, those suffering from food insecurity, those with no access to early childhood education and those without health insurance.

A pro-choice demonstration at the Supreme Court in 2020.
A pro-choice demonstration at the Supreme Court in 2020.

Good job, Texas – four slots from the bottom.

Get your own house in order before trying to dictate control over a woman's body.

National columnist Suzette Hackney is a member of USA TODAY’S Editorial Board. Contact her at shackney@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @suzyscribe

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas abortion law: Where are pro-life masks, vaccines, help for kids?