Under the vigilante system of the new Caliphate of Texanistan — Y’all Qaeda of Gilead — anyone can report anyone who is even remotely involved in helping someone get an abortion after six weeks. And yes, that includes the Uber driver or anyone else even tangentially involved.
It will be like the Nazi era where neighbors spy on each other and report any suspicious activity to the SS. Except in Texas, the spice up the offer with the promise of a $10,000 bounty if you catch someone, but no risk if you don’t.
A complete stranger — one of the theocratic “eyes” of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale — will be free to rape a woman in Texas and, if she gets pregnant and tries to remove the unwanted reminder of the violence against her after six weeks, the rapist or his allies can sue for a minimum of $10,000 plus attorneys’ fees against anyone who helps her. Oh, and the rapist can also sue for lifetime visitation rights.
Atwood’s novel was supposed to be a warning, not a “how to” guidebook.
The Talibangelists — the Talibangelicals — are crying crocodile tears over the fate of women in Afghanistan, but actively trying to import the same tactics for how to treat women in conservative states.
The pro-life movement has never been about protecting life, it has always been about dominance, particularly dominance over those whom the pro-lifers cannot be bothered to understand.
The self-proclaimed pro-life* crowd is entirely too obsessive about the imaginary people they claim to be concerned about. They need to calm down, switch off their circuit diagrams, get out of their blueprints, sit in the shade of their acorns, listen to the pleasant songs of the eggs, and stop to smell the pollen.
So, by this “law”, a serial rapist can actually make a pretty good living by raping 3-4 women a week, then waiting 6 weeks and reporting any of them that wants to get an abortion. Ain’t Texass style Capitalism GREAT??? /S
The Texas antiabortion law was written in such a way that the state can not enforce the law. Instead the law authorizes private citizens to bring a civil law suit against anyone who assists a woman (knowingly or not) in obtaining an abortion as a means to enforce a ban on abortions. Couldn’t it be argued that these private citizens are proxies of the state in the way bounty hunters are?
How are these private citizens going to win the case? These are civil cases not criminal cases. Under HIPAA, unlike criminal cases medical staff can not be compelled to disclose medical information unless the patient consents. And the patient can’t be compelled because they are not a defendant in the case and the law does not allow a civil case to be brought against them.
The law also says that if the defendant wins they can not sue to recoup costs and attorney fees. I think that this is unprecedented in civil law suits.
And yet, on the other side of the issue you have a country that’s doing ‘socialist’. Every immigrant that came from a socialist country says this is so wrong.
On the abortion issue most every country in the world (except China and North Korea) don’t allow abortion after 12 weeks.
Wait until Texas tunes up the law to include things like reading forbidden books, attending the wrong church, helping refugees and other foreigners and such. Looking for the perfect world.
The Uber driver can actually be sued 254 times as you can sue in every county in the state. So if you drive some one to a clinic in Harris County you can be sued by someone in Pecos County.
So Sharia law gives 120 days to get an abortion and Texas gives 42 and then allows crackpots to take legal potshots and people. Huh, I thought people in Texas were better armed than that. Well, you be you Texans. Maybe this is how Texas succeeds to secede?
I’m almost 73 years old (end of the month and still not all that old). There was a time when I hoped (assuming I could stay healthy) to live to be 100. In the past 10 years I’ve developed cancer (twice) and for a while I STILL wanted to do my best to beat the odds. But the way this country is going (both politically and virus wise) I’m not wanting nearly as much to live all that much longer!
The Taliban has reintroduce a moral policing ministry in Afghanistan that once controlled women’s lives. Has the time come for the GOP to institute that here?
The Evil-angelical trolls are cherry picking data from biased news sources and misrepresenting their finds. That’s typical. It’s disinformation. It’s lies by manipulating data and it’s lies by omission.
The countries that have limits also usually make exceptions. Texass does not.
Extremely few countries ban abortions and they are not typicly known for asserting anyone’s human rights, let alone women’s rights. Much like Texass.
Texass will not put a bounty on rapists but will on women who choose to take control of their own bodies.
The Evil-angelicals are the utterly most un-Christ-like “christians” and are in fact as bad as the Taliban in many ways.
Does anyone need another lesson in why the founding fathers of the United States of America wanted a separation of church and state? Seems pretty clear to those who aren’t living in Turd Reich cults.
Back in the mid-60s I was a high school kid in a small town in the upper south. Our family friends in the area were all moderate Democrats. I remember one day when my mother and three of her friends (all except my mother were church-going Christians) were talking about abortion rights, and all of these women were unanimously in favor of legalized abortion. Y=The reason for the conversation was that someone in our town had just been arrested for doing illegal abortions—he ended up serving 18 months, I believe. All of these very moderate women supported him. I was very impressed by this conversation. I don’t have any reason to believe that any of these women had had abortions, but they unanimously supported reasonable access to abortion. I’m pretty sure that if the question were left to women, reasonable access to abortion would be legal.
Welcome to the NEW, IMPROVED STATE OF EXTREMISM, brought to the totally disconnected from reality state of Texas. Funded with love by the NRA deluded Repulsican Party in their version of population control with dignity and grace. No brains needed… just guns and ignorant mouths. /s
Just as a reminder, lest we paint all of Texas and all Texans with too broad a brush, the 2020 Presidential votes for Democrats in Texas totalled 5,259,126.
That’s more Democrats in Texas than in these states actually won by Democrats: Arizona (1,672,143), Colorado (1,804,352), Connecticut (1,080,831), Delaware (296,268), DC (317,323), Georgia (2,473,633), Hawaii (366,130), Illinois (3,471,915), Maine (435,072), Maryland (1,985,023), Massachusetts (2,382,202), Michigan (2,804,040), Minnesota (1,717,077), Nevada (703,486), New Hampshire (424,937), New Jersey (2,608,335), New Mexico (501,614), New York (5,230,985), Oregon (1,340,383), Pennsylvania (3,458,229), Rhode Island (307,486), Vermont (242,820), Virginia (2,413,568), Washington (2,369,612), and Wisconsin (1,630,866).
I’ve wondered how a person would know to sue. in the first 2-3 months a woman doesn’t show. the doctor would know but the woman’s medical history is private and proof even from a court inquiry in most cases. so how does ‘Karen White’ know the woman who wnet into the clinic was 8 weeks and not 6?
It’s bad enough when “highly moral” people are willing to press their morality on others – but to do it through litigious vigilantism is just plain cowardly.
I still love my state, but I don’t like the leadership. Several of them are up for election next year, so there’s some hope that Texas might return to some degree of sanity eventually. In the meantime, I continue to be appalled and disgusted at the way things are going.
Today is my birthday, and I am wishing I skipped the Sunday comics today! It hurts worse because a federal judge overruled the sane appellate judge whole had put a stop to that b#%%$#/++!
It’s a great revenge tactic. Does she park in front of your house every day? Not clean up after her dog? Have obnoxious out of control kids? The possibilities are limitless.
I so very rarely agree with Trudeau that it is an epic event. I’ve made my rather pro-choice sentiments known a number of times so I won’t go down that road.
The structure of the Texas law is grotesque, evil and unconstitutional. From a legal standpoint it is absurd. The notion of placing enforcement for a criminal act into the civil courts is antithetical to the very core of our justice system. The bounty provision is truly evil, an open door to fascist/communist style citizen-informants. The potential for abuse as a tool of harassment is almost limitless.
The law WILL end up in front of the SCOTUS. I suspect that the current Court will support the 6 week provision, but I suspect and expect that they will strike down the entire enforcement mechanism. Despite the pro-life leanings of the conservative Justices, I expect that the bounties and civil enforcement provisions will not survive.
Private pilot available to fly folks from Texas to British Columbia after the border reopens. Address all inquiries to Freedom Flights, 2nd door on the left from the Bay Company store on Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 0L2 R5T
October is National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month. October 15th is National Remembrance Day for miscarriage, stillbirth & infant loss. Please light a candle to support the mom’s/families that have suffered this loss.
The “Morning After” pill does not cause an abortion, it prevents conception. No zygote, no fetus, no baby, no possibility of an abortion or miscarriage.
Soooo….based on this new Texas law, a husband, his wife or daughter, an airline pilot, copilot, all flight attendants, ticket counter workers, baggage handlers, the airline’s airport manager, the airline’s CEO, CFO, COO, bookkeepers, marketing professionals, office workers, IT and web architects, airport workers, parking attendants, parking lot shuttle drivers, Starbucks baristas, airport shop workers and owners and airport restaurant servers, cooks, bartenders and porters could all be sued $10,000 each for assisting in an abortion of one woman’s unwanted pregnancy? KA-CHING!
Hoo-doggy, I’m moving to Texas!!! Sure beats the pay I’m making here in Stumptown.
Seems to me they’re complaining about something that’s done in Cuba, Venezuela or one of those other countries that are usually being lauded by Democrats.
Does Garry Trudeau know that the Biden administration exists? For almost ten months now? Ever getting around to mocking them Garry? When you become a Democrat propaganda mouthpiece you stop being funny.
BOOO! Don’t you too start piling on with the “Karen” hatred. it’s a lazy slur that insults thousands of women. Sure, it’s convenient shorthand, but so are ALL hateful slurs. You’re better than this.
BE THIS GUY over 1 year ago
Start by suing the airlines that give flights to women going from Texas to states where they can get abortions. GO FOR THE DEEP POCKETS!
DD Wiz Premium Member over 1 year ago
Under the vigilante system of the new Caliphate of Texanistan — Y’all Qaeda of Gilead — anyone can report anyone who is even remotely involved in helping someone get an abortion after six weeks. And yes, that includes the Uber driver or anyone else even tangentially involved.
It will be like the Nazi era where neighbors spy on each other and report any suspicious activity to the SS. Except in Texas, the spice up the offer with the promise of a $10,000 bounty if you catch someone, but no risk if you don’t.
A complete stranger — one of the theocratic “eyes” of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale — will be free to rape a woman in Texas and, if she gets pregnant and tries to remove the unwanted reminder of the violence against her after six weeks, the rapist or his allies can sue for a minimum of $10,000 plus attorneys’ fees against anyone who helps her. Oh, and the rapist can also sue for lifetime visitation rights.
Atwood’s novel was supposed to be a warning, not a “how to” guidebook.
The Talibangelists — the Talibangelicals — are crying crocodile tears over the fate of women in Afghanistan, but actively trying to import the same tactics for how to treat women in conservative states.
BE THIS GUY over 1 year ago
The producer looks like he walked out of 1974.
Say What? over 1 year ago
The pro-life movement has never been about protecting life, it has always been about dominance, particularly dominance over those whom the pro-lifers cannot be bothered to understand.
Richard S Russell Premium Member over 1 year ago
The self-proclaimed pro-life* crowd is entirely too obsessive about the imaginary people they claim to be concerned about. They need to calm down, switch off their circuit diagrams, get out of their blueprints, sit in the shade of their acorns, listen to the pleasant songs of the eggs, and stop to smell the pollen.
––––––
*short for “proliferators”
socalvillaguy Premium Member over 1 year ago
“Karen”
Packratjohn Premium Member over 1 year ago
jesus h particular christ – the wall needs to be on the NORTHERN border….
of texas.
Petercowen over 1 year ago
1+1+1=3
Petercowen over 1 year ago
I do miss 1976 — make that 1974
Masterskrain Premium Member over 1 year ago
So, by this “law”, a serial rapist can actually make a pretty good living by raping 3-4 women a week, then waiting 6 weeks and reporting any of them that wants to get an abortion. Ain’t Texass style Capitalism GREAT??? /S
nosirrom over 1 year ago
The Texas antiabortion law was written in such a way that the state can not enforce the law. Instead the law authorizes private citizens to bring a civil law suit against anyone who assists a woman (knowingly or not) in obtaining an abortion as a means to enforce a ban on abortions. Couldn’t it be argued that these private citizens are proxies of the state in the way bounty hunters are?
How are these private citizens going to win the case? These are civil cases not criminal cases. Under HIPAA, unlike criminal cases medical staff can not be compelled to disclose medical information unless the patient consents. And the patient can’t be compelled because they are not a defendant in the case and the law does not allow a civil case to be brought against them.
The law also says that if the defendant wins they can not sue to recoup costs and attorney fees. I think that this is unprecedented in civil law suits.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/10/texas-abortion-law-ban-enforcement/
robertthomasson over 1 year ago
Could also have asked: ‘What century are we in?’
Aladar30 Premium Member over 1 year ago
Just an easy way to make money…
David in Webb Premium Member over 1 year ago
And yet, on the other side of the issue you have a country that’s doing ‘socialist’. Every immigrant that came from a socialist country says this is so wrong.
On the abortion issue most every country in the world (except China and North Korea) don’t allow abortion after 12 weeks.
greyolddave over 1 year ago
Wait until Texas tunes up the law to include things like reading forbidden books, attending the wrong church, helping refugees and other foreigners and such. Looking for the perfect world.
Gen.Flashman over 1 year ago
The Uber driver can actually be sued 254 times as you can sue in every county in the state. So if you drive some one to a clinic in Harris County you can be sued by someone in Pecos County.
vernfaulkner over 1 year ago
Y’all Queda – that wins the internet for the day.
vaughnrl2003 Premium Member over 1 year ago
So Sharia law gives 120 days to get an abortion and Texas gives 42 and then allows crackpots to take legal potshots and people. Huh, I thought people in Texas were better armed than that. Well, you be you Texans. Maybe this is how Texas succeeds to secede?
Convicted Pedant over 1 year ago
Well said! Next punishment level: picking cotton in Louisiana, a fertile breeding ground for wannabe Texicans.
Radish the wordsmith Premium Member over 1 year ago
Women should never vote for any republican ever again.
IshkaBibel1 over 1 year ago
American Taliban.
writerofstories over 1 year ago
I’m almost 73 years old (end of the month and still not all that old). There was a time when I hoped (assuming I could stay healthy) to live to be 100. In the past 10 years I’ve developed cancer (twice) and for a while I STILL wanted to do my best to beat the odds. But the way this country is going (both politically and virus wise) I’m not wanting nearly as much to live all that much longer!
ibFrank over 1 year ago
The Taliban has reintroduce a moral policing ministry in Afghanistan that once controlled women’s lives. Has the time come for the GOP to institute that here?
Display over 1 year ago
The Evil-angelical trolls are cherry picking data from biased news sources and misrepresenting their finds. That’s typical. It’s disinformation. It’s lies by manipulating data and it’s lies by omission.
The countries that have limits also usually make exceptions. Texass does not.
Extremely few countries ban abortions and they are not typicly known for asserting anyone’s human rights, let alone women’s rights. Much like Texass.
Texass will not put a bounty on rapists but will on women who choose to take control of their own bodies.
The Evil-angelicals are the utterly most un-Christ-like “christians” and are in fact as bad as the Taliban in many ways.
Does anyone need another lesson in why the founding fathers of the United States of America wanted a separation of church and state? Seems pretty clear to those who aren’t living in Turd Reich cults.
mindjob over 1 year ago
Looks like that law has been suspended.
lonecat over 1 year ago
Back in the mid-60s I was a high school kid in a small town in the upper south. Our family friends in the area were all moderate Democrats. I remember one day when my mother and three of her friends (all except my mother were church-going Christians) were talking about abortion rights, and all of these women were unanimously in favor of legalized abortion. Y=The reason for the conversation was that someone in our town had just been arrested for doing illegal abortions—he ended up serving 18 months, I believe. All of these very moderate women supported him. I was very impressed by this conversation. I don’t have any reason to believe that any of these women had had abortions, but they unanimously supported reasonable access to abortion. I’m pretty sure that if the question were left to women, reasonable access to abortion would be legal.
Ivan Araque over 1 year ago
Yo, Trudeau, you actually have a character named Karen White? That’s just freaking HILARIOUS, perhaps she should have a face! :)
kentmarx36 over 1 year ago
Welcome to the NEW, IMPROVED STATE OF EXTREMISM, brought to the totally disconnected from reality state of Texas. Funded with love by the NRA deluded Repulsican Party in their version of population control with dignity and grace. No brains needed… just guns and ignorant mouths. /s
comixbomix over 1 year ago
Is this really the sort of “person” who listens to and calls in to Mark’s show?
Richard S Russell Premium Member over 1 year ago
Just as a reminder, lest we paint all of Texas and all Texans with too broad a brush, the 2020 Presidential votes for Democrats in Texas totalled 5,259,126.
That’s more Democrats in Texas than in these states actually won by Democrats: Arizona (1,672,143), Colorado (1,804,352), Connecticut (1,080,831), Delaware (296,268), DC (317,323), Georgia (2,473,633), Hawaii (366,130), Illinois (3,471,915), Maine (435,072), Maryland (1,985,023), Massachusetts (2,382,202), Michigan (2,804,040), Minnesota (1,717,077), Nevada (703,486), New Hampshire (424,937), New Jersey (2,608,335), New Mexico (501,614), New York (5,230,985), Oregon (1,340,383), Pennsylvania (3,458,229), Rhode Island (307,486), Vermont (242,820), Virginia (2,413,568), Washington (2,369,612), and Wisconsin (1,630,866).
Wizard of Ahz-no relation over 1 year ago
I’ve wondered how a person would know to sue. in the first 2-3 months a woman doesn’t show. the doctor would know but the woman’s medical history is private and proof even from a court inquiry in most cases. so how does ‘Karen White’ know the woman who wnet into the clinic was 8 weeks and not 6?
mistercatworks over 1 year ago
It’s bad enough when “highly moral” people are willing to press their morality on others – but to do it through litigious vigilantism is just plain cowardly.
Richard S Russell Premium Member over 1 year ago
What happened to Mark’s conservative life partner? I’m sure he’d have an opinion on this subject.
Lola85 Premium Member over 1 year ago
I still love my state, but I don’t like the leadership. Several of them are up for election next year, so there’s some hope that Texas might return to some degree of sanity eventually. In the meantime, I continue to be appalled and disgusted at the way things are going.
NWdryad over 1 year ago
Welcome to the USA and its selective liberties.
JenSolo02 over 1 year ago
Today is my birthday, and I am wishing I skipped the Sunday comics today! It hurts worse because a federal judge overruled the sane appellate judge whole had put a stop to that b#%%$#/++!
Eric S over 1 year ago
Let’s go back to Phred and BD in the tunnels.
willie_mctell over 1 year ago
It’s a great revenge tactic. Does she park in front of your house every day? Not clean up after her dog? Have obnoxious out of control kids? The possibilities are limitless.
Andylit Premium Member over 1 year ago
I so very rarely agree with Trudeau that it is an epic event. I’ve made my rather pro-choice sentiments known a number of times so I won’t go down that road.
The structure of the Texas law is grotesque, evil and unconstitutional. From a legal standpoint it is absurd. The notion of placing enforcement for a criminal act into the civil courts is antithetical to the very core of our justice system. The bounty provision is truly evil, an open door to fascist/communist style citizen-informants. The potential for abuse as a tool of harassment is almost limitless.
The law WILL end up in front of the SCOTUS. I suspect that the current Court will support the 6 week provision, but I suspect and expect that they will strike down the entire enforcement mechanism. Despite the pro-life leanings of the conservative Justices, I expect that the bounties and civil enforcement provisions will not survive.
Teto85 Premium Member over 1 year ago
Private pilot available to fly folks from Texas to British Columbia after the border reopens. Address all inquiries to Freedom Flights, 2nd door on the left from the Bay Company store on Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 0L2 R5T
exitseven over 1 year ago
I was thinking the same thing when I heard that parents were going to be considered domestic terrorists if they dare question school officials,
Sailor46 USN 65-95 over 1 year ago
I am born and bred Texas, but this is the stupidest law I have ever heard of, at least in the 20th or 21st century.
UnklGene over 1 year ago
Kill the babies, sell their parts!
bakana over 1 year ago
A Lot of Texass residents fantasize about becoming a different country.
Reality keeps kicking sand all over their dreams.
swanridge over 1 year ago
Why won’t Texas secede like they keep threatening to do?
tddrmchl over 1 year ago
What kind of people murder their unborn children?
lindz.coop Premium Member over 1 year ago
Close relative to Berserkistan.
comic4matt over 1 year ago
‘’It will be like the Nazi era where neighbors spy on each other and report any suspicious activity to the SS.’’
New York 2020?
Liveoak over 1 year ago
October is National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month. October 15th is National Remembrance Day for miscarriage, stillbirth & infant loss. Please light a candle to support the mom’s/families that have suffered this loss.
LeslieAnn (formerly lesannc) Premium Member over 1 year ago
The “Morning After” pill does not cause an abortion, it prevents conception. No zygote, no fetus, no baby, no possibility of an abortion or miscarriage.
Bicycle Dude over 1 year ago
Soooo….based on this new Texas law, a husband, his wife or daughter, an airline pilot, copilot, all flight attendants, ticket counter workers, baggage handlers, the airline’s airport manager, the airline’s CEO, CFO, COO, bookkeepers, marketing professionals, office workers, IT and web architects, airport workers, parking attendants, parking lot shuttle drivers, Starbucks baristas, airport shop workers and owners and airport restaurant servers, cooks, bartenders and porters could all be sued $10,000 each for assisting in an abortion of one woman’s unwanted pregnancy? KA-CHING!
Hoo-doggy, I’m moving to Texas!!! Sure beats the pay I’m making here in Stumptown.
StewieSquarePants over 1 year ago
An incest rape victim in Texas? Who would’ve guessed?
198.23.5.11 over 1 year ago
Bring me the head of Joe T.Garcia’s.
jrlind55 over 1 year ago
Seems to me they’re complaining about something that’s done in Cuba, Venezuela or one of those other countries that are usually being lauded by Democrats.
ozzman0156 over 1 year ago
Does Garry Trudeau know that the Biden administration exists? For almost ten months now? Ever getting around to mocking them Garry? When you become a Democrat propaganda mouthpiece you stop being funny.
rfeinberg over 1 year ago
BOOO! Don’t you too start piling on with the “Karen” hatred. it’s a lazy slur that insults thousands of women. Sure, it’s convenient shorthand, but so are ALL hateful slurs. You’re better than this.
tarnrider over 1 year ago
reminds me of political cartoon where shows angry guy screaming :
“I DON’T want the government telling ME what to do!”
“I DO want the government to tell YOU what to do!!!”