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(Opinion) Gun and abortion laws have made Texas a woman's nightmare
WaPoNo paywall
Forget about Texas being pro-life. When it comes to guns, abortion and the lives of women, Texas has chosen the path of death.
The effective overturn of abortion access for women in Texas means that women must now travel out of state to safely end their pregnancies. In addition to that burden, many advocates for women have feared that these barriers would increase the risk of women being trapped in abusive relationships — as carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth ties women more closely to abusers, via their shared children.
As if that weren’t enough, gun owners in Texas, including domestic abusers, have simultaneously become more empowered because of the state’s “permitless carry” laws — and because of a federal appeals court ruling striking down a law that prohibited people under domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. Advocates have hypothesized that pregnant women in Texas and their unborn children would be more likely to die at the hands of the men in their lives.
These fears became a fatal reality last week for 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez, who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, 22-year-old Harold Thompson, after returning to Dallas from Colorado, where she had obtained an abortion.
The effective overturn of abortion access for women in Texas means that women must now travel out of state to safely end their pregnancies. In addition to that burden, many advocates for women have feared that these barriers would increase the risk of women being trapped in abusive relationships — as carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth ties women more closely to abusers, via their shared children.
As if that weren’t enough, gun owners in Texas, including domestic abusers, have simultaneously become more empowered because of the state’s “permitless carry” laws — and because of a federal appeals court ruling striking down a law that prohibited people under domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. Advocates have hypothesized that pregnant women in Texas and their unborn children would be more likely to die at the hands of the men in their lives.
These fears became a fatal reality last week for 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez, who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, 22-year-old Harold Thompson, after returning to Dallas from Colorado, where she had obtained an abortion.
