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One week ago, Governor Greg Abbott entrenched himself into nationwide discussions regarding Roe v. Wade when the state of Texas approved Senate Bill 8. The widely polarizing bill criminalizes the process of getting an abortion after someone is pregnant for more than six weeks. Immediately after the bill went into action, many people from around the country raised issues with Abbott and his colleagues. Critics explained that many people don't know that they are pregnant before the six-week mark while others pointed out that Senate Bill 8 does not make exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest. In response, Abbott provided a rebuttal that many found to be lackluster.
"It provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion," Abbott said, according to the Huff Post.
“Rape is a crime. And Texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets."
One of the first people to raise issues with Abbott's rebuttal was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York congresswoman called the governor's actions "disgusting" while pointing out that six weeks is not nearly enough time to terminate a pregnancy.
“I’m sorry we have to break down Biology 101 on national television, but in case no one has informed him before in his life, six weeks pregnant means two weeks late for your period," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
“And two weeks late on your period for any person, any person with a menstrual cycle, can happen if you’re stressed, if your diet changes, or for really no reason at all. So you don’t have six weeks.”
Ocasio-Cortez also noted that Abbott's plan to "eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas" is flawed because survivors are often targeted by people that they know and not predators "in the streets of Texas."
“These aren’t just predators that are walking around the streets at night. They are people’s uncles. They are teachers. They are family friends. And when something like that happens, it takes a very long time, first of all, for any victim to come forward," she continued.
“It’s awful, and he speaks from such a place of deep ignorance. And it’s not just ignorance. It’s ignorance that’s hurting people across this country.”
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