Category Archives: Texas

The quest to find African American graves before they’re lost to climate crisis

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As both the climate crisis and development intensify, Black cemeteries are now at a disproportionate risk of being lost, some before they have even been officially found

On a cloudy weekend day in May, Jennifer Blanks took a trip to Canaan cemetery in Bryan, Texas. The six-acre site is the final resting place for a community of primarily Black farmers and veterans, with generations stretching back to the 1800s. Among the interred is Powell Harvey, the first Black man to serve as the Brazos county constable.

If Blanks hadn’t known this before visiting, though, she might have missed many of the graves completely.

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Biden administration sues Texas over ‘clearly unconstitutional’ abortion ban

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  • Law bans abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected
  • Kamala Harris says reproductive rights are ‘non-negotiable’

The Biden administration sued Texas on Thursday over the state’s extreme abortion law, which amounts to a near total ban on abortion, calling the law “clearly unconstitutional”.

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the law that went into effect last week after the supreme court refused to block it and bans almost all abortions in the state was one “all Americans should fear”.

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Biden administration sues Texas for ‘unconstitutional’ abortion law – video

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The US attorney general has announced that the Biden administration is suing Texas over the state’s 'clearly unconstitutional' abortion law, which amounts to a near-total ban on abortion. Senate Bill 8 bans abortion around six weeks after a pregnancy starts, and is enforced by private citizens being invited to report any woman seeking an abortion after this time, with a prize of $10,000 (£72,000) for each report.

Merrick Garland said the law that came into effect at the beginning of September was one 'all Americans should fear' because it opened the possibility for other constitutional rights to be put in danger by 'bounty hunting' private citizens

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Jen Psaki mocks Texas governor’s pledge to ‘eliminate’ rape amid criticism of abortion ban – video

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked for her response to Texas governor Greg Abbott’s latest defense of the six-week abortion ban in his state. Abbott pledged to 'eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas' when he was asked why rape and incest victims should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Psaki said in response: 'If governor Abbott has a means of eliminating all rapists or all rape from the US then there’d be bipartisan support for that'. She went on to say that no leader in the history of the world has been able to eliminate rape and that is one of the many reasons that women in Texas should have access to safe abortions through their healthcare. 

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AOC on Texas governor’s ‘disgusting’ abortion remarks: ‘He is not familiar with a female body’

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Congresswoman explains basic biology to Greg Abbott after he claimed six weeks was ample time to get an abortion

Democrats including New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have decried Greg Abbott’s “deep ignorance” after the Texas governor inaccurately defended his state’s new anti-abortion law, saying that it does not require victims of rape and incest to carry pregnancies to term because it provides ample time for a person to get an abortion.

The law, which took effect on 1 September, is the most extreme anti-abortion measure in the US and essentially bans most abortions, offering no exceptions for rape or incest.

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Texas abortion ‘whistleblower’ website forced offline

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Site was removed from GoDaddy before being censored by new host Epik, known for providing services to far-right groups

Troubles are mounting for a Texas website used to report violators of the state’s extreme anti-abortion legislation after the site was forced offline by two different web hosting platforms.

The site ProLifeWhistleblower.com was removed from its original web host by the provider GoDaddy on Friday before being suspended by its new host, an agency known for providing services to far-right groups.

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Texas governor Greg Abbott signs restrictive voting bill into law – live

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Statements are coming in from opponents of the new Texas voting law. Here are some edited versions of some of them:

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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DoJ vows to protect women seeking abortions in Texas after radical state ban

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Move by US attorney general Merrick Garland comes after strictest anti-abortion law in US took effect last week

US attorney general Merrick Garland announced on Monday that the federal government will take action to protect those in Texas trying to obtain an abortion in the wake of the strictest anti-abortion law in the US taking effect last week.

The US justice department said that it will not tolerate violence against anyone seeking abortion services in the state and that federal officials are exploring all options to challenge the ban on almost all terminations, with new state law also empowering the public to enforce the law in a way critics decry as promoting vigilantism.

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‘Roe v Wade is a husk’: anguish and anger in Texas after abortion ruling

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Climate of fear descends on state for clinic workers, patients and others after the supreme court’s conservative majority decision on Wednesday

Anti-abortion bounty hunters began calling Amy Hagstrom Miller’s chain of four independent abortion clinics in Texas just hours after the supreme court issued a two-paragraph order that effectively ended access to 85% of abortion services in the state.

Related: After the Texas abortion ban, clinics in nearby states brace for demand

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Republicans in six states rush to mimic Texas anti-abortion law

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North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas and Florida eye similar measures to new Texas ban after six weeks

Republican leaders in as many as six US states are rushing to follow the lead of Texas in adopting an extreme abortion ban that critics, including Joe Biden, have slammed as unconstitutional and built to encourage vigilantism among the public.

Abortion rights advocates are bracing to resist a flurry of initiatives from Florida to North Dakota in the wake of the new Texas law, the most extreme in the US, which the conservative majority on the supreme court refused to block.

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‘You’ve never faced these choices’: Jen Psaki tells reporter on anti-abortion question – video

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The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, made an earnest retort to a journalist questioning Joe Biden's support for abortion. The US president condemned the supreme court decision not to consider a Texas law that in effect bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

'It's a woman's body and it's her choice. I know you've never faced those choices, nor have you ever been pregnant,' said Psaki adding that the president believed a woman's choices should be respected

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Democrats rush to find strategy to counter Texas abortion law

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Biden administration’s options are limited and filibuster poses roadblock to federal legislation

Joe Biden and top Democrats are scrambling for a strategy to counter Republican restrictions on women’s reproductive rights amid the fallout from a Texas statute that has banned abortions in the state from as early as six weeks into pregnancy – but the options available to the administration are thin.

The conservative-dominated supreme court in a night-time ruling refused an emergency request to block the Texas law from taking effect, in a decision that amounted to a crushing defeat for reproductive rights and threatened major ramifications in other states nationwide.

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Biden condemns US supreme court’s ‘unprecedented assault’ on abortion rights

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  • President denounces justices for failing to block Texas ban
  • Vows to ‘ensure woman have access to safe and legal abortions’

Joe Biden condemned the US supreme court on Thursday, saying it had delivered “an unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional right” in a rebuke of its decision not to consider a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Related: Biden launches ‘whole-of-government’ effort to protect Texas abortion rights after ruling – live

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US supreme court refuses to block radical Texas abortion law

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Court voted 5-4 to deny emergency appeal from abortion providers against law that bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity

A deeply divided supreme court has allowed a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state.

The court voted 5-4 early on Thursday to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of the law that went into effect Wednesday.

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Most extreme abortion law in US takes effect in Texas – video

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The US state of Texas has enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country, banning all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy – before most women know they are pregnant. The law gives private citizens the power to sue abortion providers and anyone who 'aids or abets' an abortion after six weeks. Citizens who win such lawsuits would be entitled to at least $10,000. There is concern this will spur abortion ‘bounty hunters’

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White House calls Texas abortion law an ‘extreme threat’ – video

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‘This is not the first threat to Roe we've seen in a state across the country. It's an extreme threat,' the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said after one of the most restrictive state abortion laws went into effect in Texas. Psaki said the Biden administration would fight to protect the constitutional right to abortion as laid out in the landmark Roe v Wade case

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Most extreme abortion law in US takes effect in Texas

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US supreme court fails to act to block near-total ban that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers

The most radical abortion law in the US has gone into effect, despite legal efforts to block it.

A near-total abortion ban in Texas empowers any private citizen to sue an abortion provider who violates the law, opening the floodgates to harassing and frivolous lawsuits from anti-abortion vigilantes that could eventually shutter most clinics in the state.

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Texas legislature gives final approval to sweeping voting restrictions bill

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Bill, nearly identical to a measure that passed last week, gives poll watchers more power and prohibits 24-hour and drive-thru voting

The Texas legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a new bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on voting access in the state.

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Forget the Alamo review: dark truths of the US south and its ‘secular Mecca’

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Three Texas authors expose the myth that the 1836 battle at a San Antonio mission was about freedom. It was about slavery

As the ancient American struggle over how much truth to tell about the traditional oppression of minorities bubbles over, with arguments over everything from the teaching of Critical Race Theory to the mention of anything gay in the presence of anyone under 18, this engaging new book about the history of the Alamo arrives at the perfect moment.

Related: Our Own Worst Enemy review: a caustic diagnosis of America after Trump

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‘Racist and flat out wrong’: Texas Republican blames Black Americans for Covid surge

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Dan Patrick refuses to apologise for false claim while Texas experiences highest hospitalisation rates since January

Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, has refused to apologise for blaming rising Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths on unvaccinated African Americans, comments one Black Houston official called “racist and flat out wrong”.

Related: Texas school district requires masks after finding dress code loophole to bypass ban

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