Cash and carry

According to Texas Senator Dan Patrick, the cash value of a newborn human runs just slightly higher than two months’ worth of this column. Under the rules of his freshly proposed SB 1567, the state will pay women seeking an abortion $500 to instead carry their unborn to term and then hand it over to a local adoption agency. The bill would make it mandatory for abortion providers to tell women about their cash-back option when she seeks their services.

With millionaire status just 2,000 babies away from any female Texas resident and legal U.S. citizen, it’s surprising that so far only the Senator seems to think the idea is a good one. The Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas called the bill “insulting to women.” The anti-abortion Texas Alliance for Life expressed concerns about “baby selling” and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute suggested cash-bonus coercion will strip away a woman’s dignity at what is already an “excruciatingly difficult time.”

Patrick, however, already set to criminalize abortion in Texas should Roe vs. Wade ever be overturned, says his “goal is to save as many babies as we possibly can.” A hearing date for the bill has not been set.

by Scott Saxon