A new political ad attacking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) shows the terrifying reality of the Lone Star State’s near-total abortion ban.
Mothers Against Greg Abbott, a political action committee, released an ad Thursday that reveals how the state’s near-total abortion ban is affecting not just women but girls. Texas has two laws on the books that effectively ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest and very narrow exceptions for the life of the pregnant person.
The clip opens in a doctor’s office with a physician talking to someone off screen.
“Wonderful ― baby has a nice strong heartbeat. Everything’s developing right on schedule,” the physician tells the unseen patient. “Since this is your first, you may want to take advantage of the free parenting classes we offer. I do need to prepare you for the possibility of a C-section and some long-term health issues.”
“But, for now, our focus is baby ― and baby looks great. Congratulations!” the doctor adds cheerfully. The shot widens to reveal that he’s speaking to a girl who looks to be no older than 11 or 12.
A caption then asks: “Greg Abbott chose this. What do you choose?”
The ad aims to depict a very real scenario that Abbott and other Texas Republicans have made possible for millions of little girls in the state.
“This is a child who has been a victim of rape or incest who is now forced to have a baby. That’s not OK. This is a child,” Nancy Thompson, founder of Mothers Against Greg Abbott, told HuffPost on Thursday. “These are important things that we all need to start taking into account ― not everything is a simple solution when it comes to pregnancy.”
The PAC is currently airing the ad on YouTube and other social media channels, but is going through the approval process to air it on several TV morning shows that cater to the Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Austin communities. Thompson said she’s worried about not getting approval because many media groups in the state are Republican-owned.
Abbott is a devout opponent of abortion rights, and his state has led the way in extreme anti-choice legislation. Last year, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 8, the most draconian abortion restriction in U.S. history at the time. S.B. 8 not only bans abortion around the six-week point, it also includes financial incentives for private citizens to seek out and sue anyone who “aids or abets” Texans trying to get the procedure.
After the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade this summer, a trigger ban went into effect in the Lone Star State ― effectively rendering abortion inaccessible for millions of Texans with the capacity for pregnancy.
Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee for governor, has consistently criticized Abbott for his anti-abortion stance. “Reproductive health care is under attack in this state more than anywhere else in the country, probably more than anywhere else in the developed world, and there is one person responsible for that: Gov. Greg Abbott,” O’Rourke said during a campaign stop in August.
For her part, Thompson said she hopes voters take into account what’s at stake for women and girls when they head to the polls next month.
“We need to have a society that protects a woman’s right to her own body. That’s part of our freedom as Americans,” she said. “When we have a society in which government officials have more rights over your own body than you do ― that no longer looks like a free society. If they can take that away, where are they going to stop?”