From a dear Christian friend who has experienced what would now allow her and her family to be sued:
"This is hard to write. Forgive the mistakes.
On October 3, 2003 in Austin, Texas, I had a procedure to remove an embryo. There was a LOT of blood pouring into my abdomen, and the pregnancy - as much as I wanted that baby - was killing me.
If the same thing happened to me today, my incredible physician who gave me the past eighteen years would be considered an accomplice to murder for saving my life, as would the nurses, techs, my husband, and the people who watched our kids.
A few months before that, I assisted a mother whose disabled daughter was violently gang raped in her group home. The young girl was traumatized by the resulting pregnancy, and I helped the family find a Planned Parenthood clinic. We got her a safe abortion with sedation to keep her from being further traumatized, and the clinic assisted in finding a prosecutor for the case.
Under today's Texas law, I would now face criminal and civil charges for this very merciful act. Alongside me would be the mother, the clinic doctor and staff, and the young woman herself.
Not only would we face criminal and civil charges, but vigilantes with unlicensed concealed carry handguns are now able to turn women like me into the authorities.
Bounty hunters for hurting women. Not for rapists, but for the women whose bodies have been violated. Held at gunpoint and taken into custody.
How is that even constitutional? Are we going to use the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 as precedent? And are sane politicians and attorneys just going to let this lie?
Back then, because of the stigma against abortion in my church, I never felt I could tell anyone about the pregnancy loss or the ministry case involving this young lady. Because I had stopped two beating hearts, I was part of the problem. I didn't tell my friends. I didn't tell some family members. We kept it to ourselves.
But every time I would hear some blowhard (always a white male - and generally one who I had to carry in some class) in my seminary talk about liberals and their overwhelming want to abort babies, I shrank further and further.
In my study, I learned God should be a safe, loving God. My colleagues were never loving or safe. I never told them why I couldn't use the stairs for a while. I never told my church about any of this. It was a big secret, and I felt completely invalidated as a human being by their constant judgment of other people.
Which might explain why I'm done with Evangelicalism and its now explicit intention to create a theocracy.
I would help that woman and her daughter again today, regardless of what it cost me.
Compassionate conservatism my ass. This is fascism.
You fight fascism."
