Under New Texas Law, Pregnant Women To Be Highly Regulated

The Texas state legislature passed a controversial bill yesterday which grants the state authority to act on behalf of an unborn child to prevent a pregnant woman from taking or not taking actions that the state deems are not in the best interest of the unborn child.

Under this law, The Civil Rights of The Unborn Act, the State of Texas can now use fines and even imprisonment if they determine that an expectant mother is or may be endangering the healthy birth of their child.

State Representative Horace Dixon who authored this bill, declared this as a victory for women. “Half of the unborn will grow up to be women so protecting the unborn means protecting the lives of women.”

Opponents of the new law including Planned Parenthood and NARAL have harshly criticized it, stating that in Texas, pregnant women will now be more regulated than cattle. Representative Dixon responded by saying, “If cattle ever became a threat to the life of an unborn child then that should change but since they’re not, it’s not a fair comparison.”

Women’s rights groups are greatly concerned at how this law authorizes the state government to require pregnant women to have an approved diet, avoid activities the state deems inadvisable and participate in activities the state has decided are in the best interest of the unborn child such as attending church.

“Women now need to keep a log of what they eat and drink each day or someone could report them for mistreating their unborn child and they could be jailed. This is outrageous and demeaning,” stated Anna Phelps of Planned Parenthood. “If they want to fully insulate themselves from being prosecuted and persecuted, pregnant women have to go to church, they can’t have sex after the fourth month of pregnancy, they can’t even ride in a car. This is going back hundreds of years and treating women more like breeding stock than human beings.”

Rep. Dixon disputes the claims of Phelps and others who view this law as oppressive of women. “We are actually valuing and protecting women. When liberals pass laws to have government inspect factories in order to protect people, no one says they’re oppressing factories. So it’s hypocritical of liberals to complain when government inspects the lives of women to protect the unborn.”

Dixon further explained his support of the law, “Once a woman gets pregnant, she should recognize that it’s not just her body anymore and she can’t just make decisions for herself. She’s now like an apartment building that has a renter and that renter has rights, we’re just protecting their rights until they can protect themselves.”

Now that pregnant women are essentially to be regulated in the state of Texas, Dixon predicts that Texas will lead the nation in birthrates. “We may be towards the bottom of the list on what we spend on the poor and what percentage in our state are uninsured but this law should put us at the top of the list on births! Don’t mess with Texas!”

Asked about how the increase in births may be impacted by Texas’ low standing on care for the poor and uninsured, Dixon explained, “The life of the unborn is precious and it is society’s responsibility to do everything in their power to protect them. Once they’re born, it takes money to protect them and society shouldn’t be burdened with that so it’s up to them to sink or swim. After all, there are always plenty more where they came from.”

Happy April Fools Day, Planeteers!