No, I’m not writing about the idea that the death penalty might techincally apply to doctors who perform abortions outside the boundaries of law. I’m writing about the laws that brought up the possibility in the first place–those that require the notification and consent of parents for a minor to obtain an abortion–and the legal definitions that caused all the confusion.

First, the consent law: it’s a violation of a patient’s privacy. The law is clearly intended to keep teenagers pregnant by getting parents who disagree with abortion involved, and it was not created with anyone’s freedom or well-being in mind. Existence does not count as well-being. There are plenty of people in “developing” nations, as well as here in the Unites States, who will attest to that.

Second, the homicide law. I personally agree with the Texan government that homicide is generally a bad thing. However, I do not believe that the definition of “a human being who is alive includ[es] an unborn child at every stage of gestation, from fertilization until birth.” Before we pass through the birth canal, we are fetuses. There is no such thing as an unborn child. I understand the good intent behind increasing the charges against those who commit acts of violence against women when said women are pregnant, but the wording of that law is just begging to be turned against safe, legal abortions.

Texas Governor Rick Perry misspoke when he said that restricting abortion promoted “a culture of life,” one that “protect[s]those who can’t protect themselves” and “giv[es] voice to the voiceless who yearn for life.” In many cases, abortion is the best protection for a fetus; unwanted pregnancies and the unwanted children that result from them are the greatest cause of people falling into poverty in the United States. Making it harder for someone to safely and legally maintain control over her own body is not going to help anyone. Growing up unwanted and on Welfare is hardly a gift. (That’s right, restricted abortion increases the demand for Welfare. Maybe that will make a difference to the Republicans.) And it really disturbs me that Pery takes it upon himself to speak for the fetuses of Texas. He has no idea what they want (they’re voiceless, remember?), let alone what they yearn for. Even live babies are unable to register anything other than the basic survival drives for food and attention for the first several years of their lives; how could a fetus yearn for the life it doesn’t even have yet? And don’t even think about saying anything about God or the divinity of life–the Constitution protects every American’s right to decide about that for her- or himself.

Basically, every woman deserves the right to legal and safe abortion, regardless of her age and regardless of what her parents or legislators think about it. Period.