this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Lubbock County, Texas, joins a group of other rural Texas counties that have voted to ban women from using their roads to seek abortions.

This comes after six cities and counties in Texas have passed abortion-related bans, out of nine that have considered them. However, this ordinance makes Lubbock the biggest jurisdiction yet to pass restrictions on abortion-related transportation.

During Monday's meeting, the Lubbock County Commissioners Court passed an ordinance banning abortion, abortion-inducing drugs and travel for abortion in the unincorporated areas of Lubbock County, declaring Lubbock County a "Sanctuary County for the Unborn."

The ordinance is part of a continued strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade as the ordinances are meant to bolster Texas' existing abortion ban, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides or "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

The ordinance, which was introduced to the court last Wednesday, was passed by a vote of 3-0 with commissioners Terence Kovar, Jason Corley and Jordan Rackler, all Republicans, voting to pass the legislation while County Judge Curtis Parrish, Republican, and Commissioner Gilbert Flores, Democrat, abstained from the vote.

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[–] BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zone 67 points 1 year ago (10 children)

How tf would they even enforce this?

“Are you traveling to get an abortion?” “No, I’m going to visit family”

How would they prove otherwise? Is there something I’m missing?

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The correct answer is “I don’t want to talk about my day.”

[–] TimLovesTech@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

" Am I being detained or am I free to go?" If detained "then you shut the fuck up!"

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago

It’s even better if you say “I invoke my fifth amendment right to stay silent” and then shut the fuck up.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 19 points 1 year ago

Every day is Shut The Fuck Up Friday

[–] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Three people got busted in a raid. Third guy shut the fuck up, and the DA did not prosecute. They can’t prove what you’re doing there.

[–] Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

LEAs have been shown to actively track women who use search engines or messaging services to seek information about abortion services. There's a non-zero chance that women who they suspect, and their friends and family, are tagged in their system when they search the plates of someone passing by.

It's not about lying to cops, particularly if they can already prove you were seeking those services in the first place. At that point they'll arrest you with probable cause.

They already use that kind of system with drug dealers. If they suspect you sell drugs, they will tag your name and plate and find a reason to pull you over if they spot you. Why would they hesitate to track women like that?

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It goes like this:

We know you're traveling to get an abortion, we have your messages and search history. It is illegal to use this highway for that purpose. You are under arrest.

Whether they are correct in issuing an arrest doesn't matter for them because they have qualified immunity. They let the courts sort it out.

I was just having this conversation the other day. The person was absolutely confounded how in the world this law would be enforced. I essentially said that it doesn't matter. Cops will stop you for whatever, arrest you for whatever, send you to jail for whatever, doesn't matter. If they're wrong, oh well, that's the court's job.

[–] Feddyteddy@lemmy.sdf.org 35 points 1 year ago

You're missing the right to privacy in your phone. Make sure you didn't put the clinic into Google maps or make a call to them ahead of time. Governmental AI is on the way and it will be steered by the same people making these rules.

[–] Silverseren@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago

It basically gives them an excuse to detain any woman they want, which is the purpose.

[–] eee@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago

Easy, women shouldn't be allowed to use highways period. Then they won't be able to drive to abortions.

Fuck it, women shouldn't be allowed to drive. Long live the United States of Saudi Arabia!

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These types of laws tend to rely on someone close to the pregnant person calling the cops, usually family. These communities passing these laws are full of people who would eagerly jail their children for getting an abortion.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

No no, not their children. Their child's abortion is necessary. Their child has so much potential and Jesus will forgive them for it.

You childs abortion? You're a heathen that will burn in hell for baby murder.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They cannot because they do not have jurisdiction at all. You can't prosecute someone for doing something legal in another area.

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There’s two things that apply in this situation. The first is that like several other states, they’re not making getting an abortion in another state illegal, they’re making traveling on their infrastructure for the purposes of obtaining an abortion in another state illegal. Is that an unconstitutional restriction on interstate commerce? Who the fuck knows anymore? I don’t think it will hold, but I didn’t expect Justice Thomas to rise like Cthulhu from his eternal and well grifted slumber to kill Roe, so I’m not offering an opinion on that.

The second way, and this is also worrying me, is that while they can’t make flying to California to smoke pot illegal, they can make having pot in your system when you land back in Texas illegal. If they can’t make having an abortion in CA illegal, can they still use medical records to track that your pregnancy was terminated out of state, and prosecute you on a charge after returning to the state with a terminated pregnancy?

To be honest, I think that will fail too, but I’m sure it’ll land on the books someplace.

I’m also sure that these will all become national level laws because people still think politics is a team sport, and if it does not terrify you that the worst president in the history of the US and with openly fascist statements of taking full control and going after his enemies is running neck and neck with just a regular pre-2000s style politician, you’re either not paying attention or you’re privileged as all fuck.

[–] shadow@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

This is my take as well. I hope folks figure it out and that laws like these get wiped out.

[–] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is why I as a Canadian can't fathom why Americans seem to think they have more freedom than I do somehow. To me the whole "States Rights" debacle essentially gives Americans two countries worth of laws that they are bound by instead of one.

The fact the US also enforces it's laws on non-citizens for things done outside it's country legally gives the whole thing the sense of the US being drunk on it's own sovereignty. Like it's legal to smoke pot here but if you are tricked into mentioning at a US boarder crossing that you EVER smoked weed on Canadian soil even if it was in the distant past you risk being forever barred from entry into the US.

And to be clear this is not their citizens doing things in their own country that are not illegal by the measure of that country's law. From what I understand there isn't much of an appeal process either because once it's done our citizenry suddenly goes into category "not my monkey not my circus".

The US is very very fond of restriction of freedoms from an outsider perspective.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

The big issue is that it's not law enforcement that enforce this, it's everyday people - and those people are given immunity by this law.

[–] drapermache@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

They could just have checkpoints on the exit roads on the state. There are a lot of things Texas republicans are doing with police, namely allowing them to be border patrol agents with authority to deport people. This, along with precedent being pushed that police can find probable cause after the fact that you’re arrested, police can just arrest first because they saw a women “who looked pregnant.” I foresee women becoming second class citizens really soon in red states, and its really troubling.