BAD LEADERSHIP

Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas. Y’all sure are testing the adage that all publicity is good publicity…in your minds at least since Texas very seldom receives actual good press these days. Example: yesterday’s NYT article on the legal suit being brought against the state by five Texas women who were denied medical attention when experiencing complications from pregnancy. Complications that resulted in pain, misery, potential death, and the lack of their home state to give a damn. Complications untreated in Texas that led them to seek care outside their home state. And be fearful while doing so because of the inherent risk with even searching for medical options on line. Or fear of a vigilante neighbor deciding they needed reporting for something they MIGHT decide to do. Who can live like that? As a woman, watching on the Nightly News a pro-life honcho roaming through the halls of the Texas Capitol while assuring the viewing audience that doctors made a mistake when they refused these women treatment was head-spinning to put it mildly. Assuring viewers that the statute in these instances is clear so there shouldn’t have been an issue with proper treatment was horribly laughable. When you have doctors having to go through a hospital ethics board to see if they can save a woman’s life, that is not a clear law. Texas is single-handedly negating the Hippocratic oath when it comes to women’s health care. When a political ideology or a religious belief or a I-know-better-than-you-what’s-good-for-you attitude becomes the law of the land in lieu of taking care of half your constituency, that’s rotten. That’s the state controlling our bodies. That’s the opposite of the personal freedom your party loves going on about. That’s morally, if not legally, criminal. And you and yours created all these scenarios. So I hope you enjoy the political fallout and righteous retribution that continues to come your way. Every day in every way your actions prove the point further that our Texas leadership is extreme and contrary to the wishes of the majority of us. You should listen to the people. You should listen to women.