Scare Tactics
While reading the article “Freedom Is Now More Fragile in Texas” [August 2022], I was struck by the lack of sources, and the “facts” seemed to be one-sided views. This commentary piece instead laid out a scare tactic to get people’s attention.
The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade gave back the power to the states to make decisions. Texas is a conservative state. Now Texas has the power to decide.
Victoria Weaver, Fort Worth
Please do not allow your abortion advocacy to devalue your journalistic standards. You speculate rather recklessly: abortion seeking will “possibly” be criminalized, “miscarriage could now be a death sentence,” surveillance used against terrorists “could conceivably be used” at state lines.
You call the current Texas abortion developments a “war against reproductive rights.” Many of your loyal readers do not want to be at war with you.
David Stewart, Mabank
I’m aghast at the Texas Legislature’s magical draconian thinking: laws making abortion a capital crime, fining anyone who helps a person obtain an abortion, immunity for those who testify against someone seeking an abortion, outlawing contraception. Shall I go on?
If a fetus is indeed a person, can a pregnant person claim an embryo as a dependent for a tax deduction? Why not? How about child support? If a fetus is indeed a child, can an unmarried pregnant person sue for child support? Kudos to the pregnant woman in Dallas driving in the HOV lane. Let the payback begin.
Carol Park, Lafayette, Colorado
Creative Writing
“The Golden Age of Texas Fiction” [August 2022] had my creative juices flowing like the Guadalupe. I too got here as soon as I could, on the coattails of my native-Texan husband, and the vast volume of information about my new home of San Antonio and the state at large is more than my curiosity can consume.
Might Texas Monthly be coaxed into telling its readers more about these “universities’ prestigious writing programs” and offering delicacies from a selection of each program’s successful graduates? I looked, but there was no anthology that I could find.
D. A. Gerrald, San Antonio
Editors’ note: An illustration accompanying the article “A Bunch of Bologna,” in the September 2022 issue, erroneously depicted Border Patrol agents operating along the border wall. In fact, the smugglers mentioned in the story were intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s agricultural team at the El Paso port of entry.
Also in the September 2022 issue, a caption in the article “Brush With the Past” misidentified the artists responsible for the Dream Peace mural in San Antonio. The mural was in fact designed and created by artists with Blue Star Contemporary’s MOSAIC Student Artist Program.
This article originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of Texas Monthly. Subscribe today.
