The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU TX) has partnered with reproductive rights and justice organizations and pro-abortion Texans to launch the Texas Abortion Advocacy Community (TAAN). The community will lead the continuing pursuit of reproductive freedom regardless of the near-total ban on abortions in Texas.
The Texas Abortion Advocacy Community consists of ACLU TX, AFIYA Middle, Frontera Fund, Deliberate Parenthood Texas Votes, Jane’s Due Course of, Avow, the Texas Equal Entry Fund, Lilith Fund, Fund Texas Alternative, and abortion advocates from throughout the state. This community will mobilize supporters to reply to native threats to reproductive well being and actively work to revive and broaden abortion entry in Texas.
Abortion supporters excited by studying the right way to develop into reproductive rights advocates and be part of the community ought to attend the TAAN Academy, which is internet hosting a 10-week collection of courses which have already kicked off however may be joined at any time. The free, 10-week academy is a web-based course led by consultants from every community group.
“Since we will’t depend on the courts to guard our reproductive rights, we the individuals should manage and declare our freedom to make private selections about our our bodies and our futures,” mentioned Blair Wallace, coverage and advocacy strategist on the ACLU of Texas.
Past the abortion ban, Texans face continued assaults on their reproductive freedoms even supposing nearly all of Texans help abortions. Pregnant Texans are enduring extra medical issues as a consequence of being pressured to proceed harmful pregnancies. Pregnant Black and Brown Texans and their infants usually tend to die throughout and following childbirth.
Tonjanic Hill is a type of Black ladies who skilled this horror firsthand.
In 2017, 5 weeks after confirming her being pregnant, Hill was unable to cease urinating and was in super ache as a consequence of her amniotic fluid leaking, a actuality of which she was unaware.
“I ended up going to the emergency room,” Hill advised the Texas Tribune. “That’s the place I had probably the most traumatic, horrible expertise ever.”
Although her ultrasound confirmed Hill had misplaced 90% of her amniotic fluid, and her nurse pushed again in opposition to the physician’s insistence that Hill be discharged and go see her personal OB-GYN the subsequent day, the attending doctor nonetheless, in Hill’s phrases, “disregarded” her issues.
What occurred subsequent occurs far too usually in Texas to ladies of shade.
The subsequent morning, Hill’s OB-GYN’s workplace rushed her again to the hospital, the place she misplaced her child, Tabitha Winnie Denkins.
TANN members consider the abortion ban actuality will produce extra such tragedies. Nevertheless, as an alternative of addressing these points, Texas lawmakers have voted to ship thousands and thousands of {dollars} towards funding anti-abortion facilities and now are passing unconstitutional journey restrictions on pregnant individuals making an attempt to depart Texas to get an abortion in states the place it’s authorized.
“Now, greater than ever, the Texas Abortion Advocacy Community is an important useful resource, fostering a neighborhood of knowledgeable and passionate champions for reproductive justice within the Lone Star State. By way of our community, we construct energy and neighborhood all through the state to create a future the place individuals will determine their very own destinies, together with when and if they’ve youngsters. This community serves as a beacon of hope and resilience,” mentioned Wallace.
Study extra concerning the TAAN Academy right here: https://motion.aclu.org/webform/tx-taanacademy.