“It’s scary”: Texas wants to ban pregnant women from taking the highway to prevent them from having an abortion elsewhere

Des autoroutes, au Texas.

As of 2022, abortion is illegal in Texas and several other states. However, this is not enough for many people. According to 20 Minutes, around ten Texan jurisdictions voted against the movement of pregnant women to have an abortion.

The town of Armillo, located in North Texas, which has around 200,000 residents including anti-abortion activists, calls for a ban on highways for women seeking abortions . New Mexico, Colorado and even Kansas are states whose voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) is still legal and which are connected to the city by several highways.

"Abortion trafficking"

"We face all these horrors, like abortion trafficking", explains Mark Lee Dickson "There are unborn children who are unwillingly transported across states to be murdered, continues Mark pastor and founder of the group "Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn”.

These "sanctuary cities" are usually used in progressive municipalities to designate the protection of illegal migrants, according to the newspaper La Voix du Nord. But recently, the word has been used by conservatives to restrict access to abortion. Today there are around 70 "sanctuary cities" across the country, the majority of them do not have more than 500 inhabitants.

The horrors of the suppression of the right to abortion

In 2022, the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion was removed by the Supreme Court. Since then, each State has made its own choice regarding this right. Around twenty states have banned or severely restricted access to abortion. This is the case in Texas where abortion is prohibited, even for rape or incest. There are exceptions, if there is ever a danger of death or a serious risk for the mother. However, the law is so vague on this subject that many doctors refuse to perform these procedures.

Anyone can file a complaint against a person transporting a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. "It’s very scary", confesses Harper Metcalf, a member of the Alliance for Reproductive Rights Freedom & rsquo;Amarillo. "These ordinances were not made to be enforced. They are intended to sow confusion and create fear and uncertainty, so that people avoid turning to neighbors and friends when they need help. explains Harper.