Just before the first Obama election, driving from Texas to New England in my first Mini Cooper,  I stopped in Nashville to visit my favorite childhood cousin on my daddy's side--one of the few times I'd seen her in decades. 

When she came out to greet me, she saw my Obama sticker and called out to her husband, "Honey, come look. She's a DEM-o-crat!"  

(Aside to me: "We've never had a DEM-o-crat in our house before.")

"Yes you have," I said.  "Carlene visited you a few months ago." 

My cousin looked stricken.  "Aint Carlene can't be a DEM--o-crat!"  (Aint is Tennessee-speak for Aunt.) 

Fox News was rolling on two televisions.  I put my suitcase in a luxurious upstairs guest room.  We swam and talked of other things, but she kept rotating back to the original subject.  "Do y'all believe in abortion and all?" she asked--as if she were interviewing an alien from Outer Space. 

****

Now here we are, 2021, and it's my state that's taking the lead in turning back to the Dark Ages of pre-Roe in women's rights while offering strangers and friends a chance to collect a bounty for turning in anyone who wants even counseling or transportation to abortion clinics. 

I am (as are all my friends) outraged and embarrassed for what this horrible Texas legislation means for the future of choice.

Sanctimonious "pro-life" rhetoric is even more hypocritical now--when our governor disallows mask mandates for school-age children during COVID.

I don't believe for a minute that these law-makers genuinely care about "unborn children" but their right to birth agenda has proven successful in attracting evangelical far-right voters.