In Texas, Abortions Are Now Harder to Get Than AR-15s
A Case Study of Texas Abortion Law vs. Texas Gun Law
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law, known as Senate Bill 8, that bans nearly all abortions after six weeks of gestation. With the implementation of this law, Texas is now the state with the most restrictive abortion ban in the country. Although other states have proposed similar laws, Texas is the first state to successfully implement such high restrictions on female reproductive healthcare.
There is no doubt that this law is a deadly setback for women. But, instead of focusing on the known dangers of this bill, I will mainly discuss the failed ideology that is woven into the backbone of the anti-abortion movement: the pro-life narrative.
If protecting life is so important in Texas, then Pro-Lifers must be proponents of other matters of human safety such as gun reform, right? Wrong. As it turns out, the Venn diagram of Texans that are pro-life and that are anti-gun-control is, well, a circle.
The hypocrisy of pro-lifers as anti-gun regulation advocates is well documented and discussed within political and feminist circles. The crux of the paradox is, of course, that gun safety is inherently pro-life.
While Texas is decreasing access to abortions, it is simultaneously increasing access to guns. According to a CNN report, as of this week, Texans can now openly carry guns in public without a permit or training.
It seems as though access to safe abortions and access to guns are intertwined; the more difficult it is to access safe abortions, the easier it is to access dangerous firearms.
In the text that follows, I contribute to the existing discourse on the discrepancy in the pro-life narrative as I present a case study of Texas abortion law and Texas gun law. I specifically examine the ways women’s bodies are regulated and restricted compared to guns and assault weapons. In so doing, I demonstrate the inconsistency of the pro-life narrative as it is applied to bolster the restrictions placed on women and the lack thereof on guns.
So, let’s begin.
It is important to note that women’s bodies in Texas are more heavily regulated than guns. In Texas, it is now harder to get an abortion than it is to obtain an AR-15.
Below, I detail the requirements for obtaining an abortion vs. the requirements for obtaining a gun in Texas.
In Texas, a pregnant person seeking an abortion must:
- Get written approval by a parent or guardian if they are an unmarried minor OR go before a judge and receive permission from the judge to receive an abortion without the parent’s permission (source: Planned Parenthood)
- Attend two visits to the abortion clinic (visiting the same doctor). According to Planned Parenthood, “The state requires you to undergo a sonogram and receive state-mandated paperwork about medical risks, adoption alternatives, and developmental stages of the fetus. (Some of the information in this paperwork is false.).” and the second visit, at least 24 hours later, is the procedure. (source: Planned Parenthood)
- Receive the abortion within six weeks of gestation. After six weeks, abortion becomes illegal (source: Planned Parenthood). No exceptions for rape or incest.
All of the Texas abortion process steps are designed to make it harder for individuals to seek and obtain abortions. According to Pro-Lifers, these steps are designed to protect “unborn” life.
On the contrary, in Texas, a person seeking to obtain a firearm must:
- Buy one
There are no permits required to obtain a handgun or a firearm in Texas, and there is no state registration for firearms.
According to the official Texas Gun Laws website, not only are assault weapons legal in Texas but there is also no limit on the number of rounds a magazine can hold.
Additionally, there is no waiting period required to make the purchase. Anyone over the age of 18 can purchase a firearm from a licensed gun dealer (no firearm permit required for purchase).
The hoops a pregnant person in Texas must jump through to obtain their desired medical attention compared to the ease with which a Texan can acquire an assault-style weapon begs the question: what does it really mean to be pro-life in Texas?
In addition to the steps needed to gain access to safe and effective abortions in Texas, the recent change in outlawing abortions after six weeks instead of the previous 20-week window poses new and dangerous threats to women.
This law nearly outlaws all abortions in Texas as 85 to 90% of abortions have taken place after the six-week mark.
Furthermore, there are no exceptions of instances of rape and incest; this means that a survivor of rape or incest is forced to give birth if the pregnancy is not detected within six weeks.
If this fact is not disgusting enough, due to the lack of regulation of guns in Texas, a convicted criminal, such as a rapist, can legally obtain a firearm.
So how can it be that in Texas, a known violent man, a convicted rapist, has the right to buy a gun, a weapon of violence, but a woman who has been raped does not have the right to abort her pregnancy if detected after six weeks?
Why do we have systems that strengthen known abusers as opposed to aiding those that are abused?
When examining Texas’s abortion laws and gun laws in tandem, it becomes clear that the pro-life argument does not have to do with protecting human life; if it did, Texas gun laws would look very different.
If pro-life was about life and safety, not only would safe abortions be encouraged in order to protect the wellbeing of the living, the impregnated person, but gun safety would be a leading issue of the movement. After all, gun regulation attempts to decrease gun violence and save lives; ipso facto gun reform is inherently “pro-life.”
Conservatives have routinely demonstrated that the “pro-life” argument used to control women’s bodies does not hold when extended to other issues of protecting life such as gun control and common-sense gun laws. This blatant inconsistency in the pro-life narrative suggests that the backbone of abortion restrictions is not about protecting fetuses but is instead about controlling women.
Not only do I suggest that Pro-Lifers are more concerned with controlling women than protecting life, but they are also more concerned with controlling women’s bodies than keeping those same bodies safe from gun violence.
There is no question that we desperately need gun reform and increased access to abortions in Texas. Still, the foundational issue that is repeatedly ignored is this: we need to re-examine the patriarchal systems at play that simultaneously breed male violence and seek to control, not protect, women.
