In response to Mr George’s incendiary and fact-free letter dated September 6, I’d merely ask Mr. George if, to provide some comparison to the Texas law, he would like it if the tables were turned. Imagine you got a girl pregnant Mr. George and doing so was against the law. Imagine if someone knew about what you did and imagine they could look for you and turn you over to the state for breaking the law. They’d get $10,000. You’d get penalized and potentially jailed, at the very least having to live with yourself as systems of shame ensure your presence in the public eye, make sure everyone knows your name and what you did, and ask dear god how could he, there’s a life on the line.

The Texas law is nothing but punitive for women and girls, many of whom do not know at six weeks they are pregnant. When you remove safe access to health care choices what’s left, Mr. George? Unsafe alternatives that will harm women and girls. When you play part in a system that denies choice of health care to women and girls you deny women and girls agency in their own lives. And when you control that decision for her you treat her as less then a fully adult human responsible for her own choices. And to suggest that babies exist exclusively for the cultural totem of being grandchildren — living for others — is specious reasoning at best. Yet I cannot expect you to change your tune so perhaps I’m yelling into a hurricane.

I’d also ask Mr. George if he’s prepared to support children post-birth: will he lobby for pre-K care, paid family leave, free and reduced school lunches, after-school programs and if a child falls into a bad way is he prepared to advocate for recovery and recidivism reduction programs? Or is he just pro-birth and the takers have to start pulling their bootstraps.

Chris Creamer

Urbana