The Injustice of the Texas Abortion Ban and A Call to Rehumanize Women: A Social Worker’s Reflection
Writing has always been a cathartic practice for me, an act of self-love and preservation. It’s my way of processing. It also serves as a form of activism and resistance. So, when news broke about the Texas Abortion Ban, I did what any Ph.D. Candidate who is procrastinating writing their dissertation would do (okay, maybe just me), I channeled my rage into reflection. Anti-abortion rhetoric is no stranger. I was born and raised in a conservative religious family in the Deep South. I attended private schools, wore the uniforms, and went to mass where the patriarchy met the pulpit week after week. I struggled to navigate the hierarchy and the contradictions and instead, often suffocated under them. As a woman, I was sometimes seen and seldom heard. Since leaving the denomination, I have dedicated my career to being an advocate to women and for women, beginning with myself.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why coping has been immensely difficult for the past few days. After hearing the news of the Texas Abortion Ban, I crumbled as a familiar pit in my stomach returned. As a woman, a feminist, a mother by choice, and a social worker, I felt angry as hell and afraid. Afraid of what this means for women, their families, and their communities. Afraid of what this means for all of us. My profession calls me to pursue social justice and to provide access, services, and information to others above self-interest. This abortion ban is a direct assault on women’s freedom, decision-making ability, and constitutional rights and is a law anchored to a false premise of wanting to protect life. But whose? Clearly, not women’s lives. Instead, the law protects patriarchy, misogyny, racism, classism, and various veins designed to pump and carry out oppression. Once again, women are the casualties, devalued and dehumanized.
This ban is a prime example of the danger in laws created based on Evangelical values and moral superiority instead of laws developed out of facts. As an academic, I seek the facts. Facts are my way of making sense of phenomena and lived experiences. I have witnessed the devastation and harm that arises from ignored facts and unchecked falsehoods permeate. As a practicing social worker in the anti-violence field for the past ten years, I’m convinced that this goes beyond the pro-choice/pro-life debate-it’s way more complex and insidious than that. This law is about violence, specifically, state-sanctioned reproductive violence against women. This harmful practice is certainly not new given this Country’s longstanding history of racism, genocide, forced sterilization, social services rooted in white supremacy, lack of comprehensive sex education, high maternal mortality rates, and funding cuts for agencies providing reproductive health services. Abortion bans have and will continue to impact Black and Brown bodies disproportionately. The Bans will also profoundly affect women living in poverty.
This law stands for pro-birth, not pro-life. If honoring life is the goal, how about we start by addressing the housing and homelessness crisis, the gender pay gap, lack of affordable childcare, and access to firearms which account for the killing of an average of 57 women a day. Let’s take a moment and consider what we are forcing women to sacrifice mentally, physically, and economically when we deny their autonomy and create fearmongering? What impacts will this law have on individuals, families, communities, and organizations, and how many other states will follow suit? Experience working with women leads me to believe that there will be an uptick in trauma, that women’s health will be further endangered, that service providers will face even more restrictions, and that social services will not be equipped to meet the greater demand for resources.
As we make a way forward, we must continue to use our voices to speak out against the injustice of abortion bans and the oppressive systems that perpetuate violence targeting women. We can find ways to rehumanize women by centering their wants and needs and supporting the brave individuals and communities doing this work, day in and day out. We must lean into the collective movement and intentionally choose to keep fighting the fight. Women are a force to be reckoned with, and our power lies in our ability to use one another’s light as the way through. In the meantime, I will be piecing myself back together and choosing hope as my act of rebellion.
In solidarity with my fellow warriors,
Amber Sutton
Amber Sutton, LICSW is a licensed independent clinical social worker and a current PhD Candidate at the University of Alabama’s School of Social Work. Her research focuses on the intersection of COVID-19, Intimate Partner Violence, and Femicide. When she is not chasing after her two-year old son, she is providing telehealth services for adult women survivors of violence.
