Is Texas Right or Wrong on Abortion and Election Integrity?

            Texas is in trouble with many Americans on two fronts, while being cheered by many different Americans. The first front is a bill banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected – about six weeks after gestation. The second front is on election reform.

            This essay will discuss the abortion banning law first. Cal Thomas shared several headlines (most likely written by liberals) and then asked how different headlines could be written from a conservative viewpoint. 

Instead of words like “most restrictive in nation” (The Wall Street Journal) and “Supreme Court refuses to block Texas law” (The Washington Post), along with four stories splashed across the front page of The New York Times that seemed to be written from the perspective of pro-choice writers, what if the headlines had instead reflected another point of view that took the side of babies and the women who carry them?

Those headlines and stories might have read: “Supreme Court decides to protect babies, recognizing Thomas Jefferson’s writing about endowed life coming from God.” Or, if that’s too long for headline writers, how about “Supreme Court takes side of the unborn”?

Might that have changed the perception about abortion by people who are on the fence, or conflicted? Information, including sonograms for abortion-minded pregnant women, has been shown to change minds. So has compassionate counseling and adoption services at pregnancy help centers.

            Thomas condemned judges who makes decision based on “their own biases, even prejudices” and said that the “Founders never intended” for any of the courts to have this power. He also explained that “the Texas law will be challenged in other ways.” The Supreme Court will hear a Mississippi law that “will ban most abortions after 15 weeks.”

            Abortion brings many emotions. Some women regret having an abortion, while other women feel only relief. Some women understand that they killed their baby, while others are grateful to not have the responsibility for caring for a child.

Abortion and refusing to take personal responsibility for one’s actions have contributed to a general coarseness and disrespect for life at all stages, as witnessed by the shooting sprees regularly occurring in Chicago and other major cities. The Texas and Mississippi laws seek to reverse, or at least slow down, the process of squandering human life.

The question remains: Is abortion the cause of our increasingly decadent culture, or a reflection of it?

            Thomas’s question is much like the one about the chicken and the egg. I believe that the answer is a combination of the two results. Abortion made it easier for women to have equal sexual freedom with men, where previously they had to worry about pregnancy. However, the increased sexual liberation led to decreased moral strength.

            The second front that Texas is fighting has to do with election reform. According to Andrew Trunsky, SB 1 – the law signed by Governor Greg Abbott today in Tyler, Texas – is the same bill that caused Democrats to fly to Washington, D. C. It “repeals many of the voting measures that large cities in the state implemented amid the pandemic and overhauls the state’s mail-in voting and polling-place systems.” It also “bars election officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters, threatening jail time if they do so.” 

Supporters argue that the necessary restrictions within the bill will prevent voter fraud in future elections.

“Senate Bill 1 creates uniform statewide voting hours, maintains and expands voting access for registered voters that need assistance, prohibits drive-through voting, and enhances transparency by authorizing poll watchers to observe more aspects of the election process,” Abbott said in a statement ahead of the signing.

Critics, however, argue that the bill will place harmful restrictions on voters of color and voters in urban areas, two demographics that tend to vote Democratic. Voting rights advocates have already sued to have the bill thrown out, alleging that it will make it disproportionately harder for people of color to vote.

            Can Texas continue to fight on both fronts that it opened? The Texas abortion law will assure that fewer babies will die at the hands of their mothers. It will also cause women seeking abortions will be forced to go to other states. The question still remains if the law will cause Roe v. Wade is affected by the Texas and/or Mississippi laws. The Texas election integrity law is touted as a law that will make it easier to vote but harder to commit voter fraud. I am conservative, and I think that both laws are good