Natalie San Luis Posts

Here's how democracy works in Texas: Over 19,000 Texans wrote to the Department of State Health Services during the public comment period asking for existing clinics to be exempt from the new ambulatory surgical center regulations. Only 265 requested a strict version of HB 2 rules. Last week the Texas Health and Human Services Commission released the final rules for the abortion restrictions passed this summer, and unsurprisingly, they reflect the least compassionate interpretation of the law.

Much to the surprise of people of color everywhere, racism is dead — and even more surprisingly, the Republican National Committee was the first organization to break the news. It may have come from an ill-worded tweet, but the lack of understanding certainly says quite a bit about the GOP's awareness.

People who have had sex are worth as much as a chewed-up piece of gum or a used toothbrush. That's the atrocious lesson that Texas sex educators are teaching children in middle school to shame them out of having sex before marriage — assuming they can get married, a right that many of these Texas adolescents may never have.

Yesterday afternoon, a federal judge ruled that one of the HB 2 abortion restrictions was unconstitutional and issued a partial injunction on another. According to Whole Woman's Health, the state of Texas has already filed its notice of appeal.

HB 2 is another anti-woman bill placing undue burdens on Texas women looking to get an abortion. A study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project shows that just one of the provisions might hinder two out of three women from receiving the procedure.

A new report from four regulatory agencies in Texas shows that the state's abortion clinics are clean, safe, well-regulated and pose no health threat to women. However, a World Health Report shows that unsafe abortions are on the rise and there's a direct correlation to restrictive abortion laws — just like the one recently passed in Texas that will shutter 37 clinics across the state.