Abortion

Activists Ask for Legal Abortion Care From Elected Representatives at Texas Capitol [Video]

Days before the Texas legislature adjourned for the year, anti-choice lawmakers made it a priority to make it harder for the most vulnerable minors who have unplanned pregnancies to get legal abortion care in the state. But the bill's proposal and passage didn't go unnoticed.

Days before the Texas legislature adjourned for the year, anti-choice lawmakers made it a priority to make it harder for the most vulnerable minors who have unplanned pregnancies to get legal abortion care in the state. But the bill's proposal and passage didn't go unnoticed. RH Reality Check/ YouTube

Days before the Texas legislature adjourned for the year, anti-choice lawmakers made it a priority to make it harder for the most vulnerable minors who have unplanned pregnancies to get legal abortion care in the state.

HB 3994, which makes a litany of changes to the states’ existing judicial bypass process—the means by which minors can ask a judge to stand in for an abusive or absent parent in order to get legal consent for abortion—is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. He must sign the bill, which further restricts the rights of the estimated 200 to 300 abandoned, abused, and neglected Texas children and teens who use the judicial bypass process every year, into law by June 21.

But the bill’s proposal and passage didn’t go unnoticed. A grassroots group of reproductive justice activists—this reporter included—organized an action wherein protesters posing as “Jane Does” (the name the court system gives minors who seek judicial bypasses) sought legal abortion care from their elected representatives.

In this video, you can watch the lead “Jane,” activist Delma Limones, ask lawmakers: “I’m here to get my procedure, because I heard this is where decisions about my care are being made.”

Seems like a fair question to me. Watch the video to see how legislative staffers reacted, and to learn more about how you can help Texans get the safe, legal abortion care they need.