There’s more than one way to skin a cat. If lawmakers can’t flat out ban a woman from having an abortion, they still can pass laws that limit her ability to procure one. This fight us women have faced for longer than anyone can remember, to be free, have the same rights as men and the right to have final say so what happens to our body, seems like it will never end. Texas has now passed a law requiring that an aborted fetus be either cremated or buried and barring prior methods such as incineration and other means of disposal.
The law is aimed directly at providers, who can be controlled by the laws since women can’t. This new law will undoubtedly raise the prices of the abortion procedure, for many women, possibly out or their budget.
Imagine not being able to come up with an additional money for an abortion, being forced to bring a kid into a life of poverty. If you can’t afford the abortion, how can anyone expect you to be able to afford 18 years of raising a child?
The cost associated with cremating and burying the fetal remains will now force providers to face the issue of either raising their prices or possible closure. Additionally, the providers and hospitals must find a funeral home willing to work with them. Funeral homes who are known to cremate or bury the discarded “tissue” may become the target of scorn and/or public protest.
According to Planned Parenthood, an abortion currently costs between $300-$950 depending on the type of procedure required. The Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospitals Association claim that cremating an aborted fetus could cost anywhere between $1,500 and $4,000. The cost associated with burial can be more than twice that. Under this new law the cost of an abortion can more than triple overnight when the new law goes into effect December 19. Read the letter sent to the Texas State Department of State Health Services here.
State lawmakers disagree with the undue cost burden now upon abortion and after care providers. Somehow they have convinced themselves that this change in the way fetal remains are disposed of will only cost each facility $450 annually. Lawmakers attribute this figure to research and the money saved from departing from the current means of disposal.
The new law also slipped into the fine print that any fetus 20 weeks or further along or weighing 350 grams or more must be issued a fetal death certificate. Not everyone wants to name a child they aren’t having, this new law is nothing more than a method to punish and shame women who seek abortions.
Texas state governor, Gov. Greg Abbott, a republican said “I believe it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life. This is why Texas will require clinics and hospitals to bury or cremate human and fetal remains.”
Society must stop trying to force its beliefs and wishes on everyone. It only takes for one to look at the world we live in so many unattended youths roaming the street. So many people are jobless, homeless, hungry. Too many people are having kids they don’t want, can’t afford, or are too screwed up to care for. I find it odd abortion is such a hot button topic. If you ask me, it should be free like condoms at a free clinic, as should the option of sterilization.
I have in my own family, people who have drug addicts and have had multiple children raised in the streets. Children who also grew up to be unproductive members of society, burdens, as we commonly refer to them.
Somehow the consensus of society is that it’s preferable to house and feed these burdens in jails. We spend billions of dollars trying to clean the streets of the dregs of society, when in fact, many of them should have never been born.
This new law does not pertain to the disposal of any other human organs or remains. Hearts, lungs, eyeballs, spleens…whatever else can be sent to medical landfills. But pieces of tissue which were never developed into human beings, can be. Isn’t it ironic how an aborted fetus now has to be buried or cremated BUT if a criminal shoots a pregnant woman, it’s not an automatic double murder. We live in a country that still has the death penalty. It sure seems like this sanctity of life stuff is only an issue when it comes to policing a woman’s body.
