Another Twitter user, who describes Jesus as a “rape baby” (claiming Mary was too young to consent to pregnancy), posts: “If God did not care about Mary’s bodily autonomy, why should [white evangelicals] care about girls and women today?”
Other people say it’s hypocritical for anti-mask, anti-vaccine Republican Christians to claim those are personal choices yet deny reproductive options to women.
Thursday, when a male reporter asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki how Biden can be both Catholic and pro-choice, she responded: “I know you’ve never faced those choices, nor have you ever been pregnant, but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing.”
Texas-Based Corporations Create Relief Funds
Two rival dating platforms based in the Lone Star State announced plans to help employees (and their dependents) who are affected by the abortion ban. Match Group, headquartered in Dallas, and Bumble, headquartered in Austin, say they’ll provide relief funds to assist with travel to out-of-state abortion clinics.
Match Group CEO Shar Dubey says the company (home to Match.com, Tinder, and other popular dating apps) usually stays out of political debates. “But in this instance, I personally, as a woman in Texas, could not keep silent,” she says. “Surely everyone should see the danger of this highly punitive and unfair law that doesn’t even make an exception for victims of rape or incest. I would hate for our state to take this big step back in women’s rights.”
Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd says of her women-led company: “From day one we’ve stood up for the most vulnerable. We’ll keep fighting against regressive laws.”
Oklahoma and other states that border Texas are reporting increased demand for abortion services. Rival ride-service companies Lyft and Uber have announced they’ll cover the legal fees of their drivers who are charged with “aiding and abetting” abortion-seekers by transporting them to clinics.
Boycotts Could Be Another Strategy
Because the Texas law is expected to stand for a while, some people are urging major sporting events to boycott Texas and hurt the state economically. “At this point it’s likely the only thing narrow-minded lawmakers like those in Texas respond to is money,” writes Yahoo sports columnist Shalise Manza Young. “Clearly not many of these public figures feel actual shame anymore.”
The NCAA, she says, needs to lead the way and pull upcoming Final Four basketball tournaments out of Texas—not only because of the abortion law but because of recent voting-rights and race-related rulings there. The message she urges the NCAA to send to Texas? “If you don’t support civil rights for all people, you don’t get to host our championships.”
