Texas law requires a minor who wants to get an abortion to have parental consent. If parental consent isn't possible, teens can petition a judge to bypass parental consent. That requires the knowledge and courage to go to a judge—a tall order for a pregnant teen who almost by definition has a problematic family situation—and requires finding a judge willing to hear the petition. Now, Texas Republicans are going after that last part with
legislation targeting judges who rule on those cases.
Republican state legislators have introduced two bills, one of which would name the judges who grant bypasses, and the other of which would list which courts grant them—a move that would make it easy to identify individual judges on smaller courts. Judges in some areas would see that as a danger to their re-election prospects, and some worry about physical attacks. That means these bills, if passed, would make it even harder for vulnerable teens:
Many of the young women who use the bypass system have been physically abused by a parent or have a mother or father who threatened to kick them out of the house if they ever got pregnant. Some are caretakers for their parents. Others are estranged from them: "Mom's dead, Dad's in prison, they never liked me much anyway," is how Hays, the attorney, has described these cases.
But if the state were to start naming judges, many would become unwilling to participate in the process, Hays argues. "Some of these courthouses already refuse to hear the girls' petitions, which is eight shades of illegal, but what are we going to do about it?" she says. "Now, if it's going to be public which judges are doing these, you're going to have girls with nowhere to go."
The Republicans pushing these bills are talking about accountability—as in "we need to hold that judge accountable for listening to a scared pregnant teenager and giving her permission to have a legal medical procedure." But we know the end game: throwing up as many barriers to abortion as the courts will allow, making it all but impossible for young women and poor women and rural women to obtain.