The GOP in Texas are making their constituents proud by refusing to respect the constitutionally-supported Roe V. Wade and continuing their war against women’s reproductive rights.
Their latest barrage of attacks included a bill which, if passed, would give doctors immunity if they were to lie to their patients about their pregnancy, even if they were doing so to try and prevent an abortion.
The so-called “wrongful births bill,” claims to exist to protect doctors from being sued if a child is born with a disability, but the reality is that the bill would allow a doctor to purposefully lie to or misinform their patient if they believed the patient was looking to obtain an abortion.
Under the law, doctors could technically lie to a patient about being pregnant at all in the interest of preventing an abortion. More practically, it would allow a doctor to omit important information pertaining to birth defects in a fetus so that the mother would not consider aborting the child.
Either way, the law would allow doctors to knowingly misinform pregnant women, further removing their agency and keeping important information about their own bodies from them.
Effectively, this allows doctors to impose their moral and religious beliefs on their patients without their knowledge.
The bill and its intended consequences might make one think of women’s role in healthcare in the past – when women were not fully informed by doctors who considered them closer to children than responsible adults. If a woman is carrying a child, she has every right to know any and all information available so that she may make the best choices for herself and her fetus. Not doing so is infringing on some of the most basic American and human rights.
While Republican attacks on reproductive freedom are numerous, this new bill appears to more subversive than normal, and may actually survive the courts if passed. Strong pushback from women and the concerned public will be necessary to kill this regressive bill.
