Abortion is legal in Texas and across the United States, but that doesn’t stop anti-abortion politicians from doing whatever they can to interfere with access to reproductive healthcare. Local governments have added fuel to the fire by passing anti-abortion ordinances that confuse residents about their rights and increase the ever-present stigma around seeking abortion care.

That’s why, for the first time, reproductive rights, health, and justice groups in our state are joining forces to expand essential health care access for all Texans by creating the Texas Abortion Access Network. Join us for TAAN’s launch on Thursday, August 20 at 6 PM CT, to become a founding member of TAAN and hear about how you can get involved. 

In the last year alone, 13 cities in Texas have passed so-called “sanctuary cities for the unborn” ordinances. These ordinances attempt to ban abortion in those cities if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and some even attempt to ban contraception. At one point, many of these ordinances even declared abortion providers and other advocacy groups to be “criminal organizations.”

We sued and successfully pushed those cities to remove the most harmful parts of those ordinances — but those laws are just one example of the many ways Texas politicians have attacked reproductive freedom. For years, Texas politicians have piled restriction after restriction on abortion access. From enacting 2013’s House Bill 2, which led to the closure of half of all Texan abortion clinics, to banning abortions during the early COVID-19 pandemic, elected officials in Texas continually work to block essential healthcare.

But together, we are fighting back for the right to determine our own lives and destinies.

The Texas Abortion Access Network (TAAN) is a new collaboration between the ACLU of Texas, AFIYA Center, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, Progress Texas, Texas Equal Access Fund, Texas Freedom Network, Jane’s Due Process, and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance. We’re building community among Texas residents who are fed up with attacks on their reproductive freedom. 

Through TAAN, we are building grassroots power across Texas. We will not only defend against further restrictions but also empower activists to dive into action and put proactive, protective laws on the books in their hometowns. We are building a diverse base of volunteers that represent every corner of the state and equipping them with the tools they need to be leaders in their communities. 
 
A key component of TAAN is the Texas Abortion Access Academy, an 8-week online training program led by abortion access experts. The academy will cover a comprehensive array of topics to build each person’s capacity to become an effective abortion rights advocate. We’re including a crash-course on the status of abortion in Texas, how to talk to others about abortion, background on reproductive justice, and how to advocate and organize for abortion access. At the end of the program, cohort members will have gained the skills to lobby their local government, have difficult conversations about abortion, and get others involved in the movement. 

Let’s be clear: Attacks on abortion care won’t stop Texans from needing, and seeking, abortion care. They’ll just ensure that the most vulnerable Texans have a much more difficult and costly experience accessing it. We’ve seen it again and again — restrictions to abortion care disproportionately harm Black and Brown people, people struggling to make ends meet, those who are already parenting, folks in rural areas, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and young people.  

Without access to reproductive health care, our communities can’t thrive. And while abortion remains legal, the fact that the Supreme Court nearly allowed a Louisiana law— one identical to a Texas law they struck down just four years ago — to take effect shows that we can’t take the judicial system for granted. Our rights won’t be handed to us, we have to take them.

Blair Wallace, Policy and Advocacy Strategist, ACLU of Texas

For weeks, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security laid siege to the city of Portland to suppress the voices of those demanding justice for Black lives. The militarized agents used sharpshooters to maim people, swept protesters away in unmarked cars, and brutally attacked journalists, legal observers, and medics with sonic weapons and tear gas. They didn’t spare moms, dads, veterans, nurses, or even the city’s mayor.
 
The agency’s lawlessness was so profound that a federal court in Portland issued a restraining order against the agency after the ACLU filed suit. Congress held numerous hearings. The agency’s inspector general opened an investigation. Even former leaders of the Department of Homeland Security decried its abuses. Richard Clarke, who served on the National Security Council for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, called for dismantling DHS. 
 
The administration’s effort to use its response to the protests in Portland as some twisted campaign prop miserably backfired, and the agents were forced to retreat. Now, recognizing that he’s in hot water, Chad Wolf, who was illegally appointed as head of DHS, is on a media tour in an attempt to rewrite history.

But the truth was caught on video for the world to see. No press interview, no op-ed, and no statement by any administration official can undo the fact that DHS agents beat a Navy veteran for simply asking them questions. They can’t hide the viral video of unmarked federal agents — later identified to be with DHS — hauling a protester off the streets of Portland into an unmarked vehicle. They can’t make us forget the sight of DHS agents firing tear gas at individuals simply exercising their right to protest, or beating and dragging off medics providing aid to an unconscious bystander. They also can’t erase the decades of abuse, civil rights violations, killings, and discriminatory surveillance of Black, Brown, and immigrant communities.
 
Wolf did get one fact right: “Courthouses uphold everyone’s rights.” The federal court in Portland did uphold the people’s rights when DHS brought its police state tactics there. It ordered the agency to stop arresting and attacking journalists and legal observers. But DHS didn’t comply with the court order — even after the court issued its restraining order, the agency continued to attack journalists and legal observers.
 
An agency claiming to defend the courthouse should, at a minimum, obey the orders coming out of it.
 
As we have for a century — much longer than DHS has been around — the ACLU will continue to unapologetically defend the Constitution from all those who undermine it. This includes the Department of Homeland Security. DHS is too powerful, too abusive, and too much of a threat to America’s democratic values. As ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero and former Bush administration official Richard Clarke put it, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Abdullah Hasan, Communications Strategist, ACLU

Immediately after Trump’s election, we put the president and his administration on notice: If they enacted unconstitutional and illegal policies, we would see them in court. We meant it. As of today, we’ve filed 400 legal actions against this administration. Our 400th filing was a class-action lawsuit that seeks to block the removal of children seeking asylum at the border. 

https://twitter.com/ACLU/statuses/1295369061916958720

In this centennial year of our founding, we remain steadfast. We at the ACLU believe that America — our basic values, system of checks and balances, our shared humanity — is worth fighting for. Today, we recommit to this fight, to create a world where “we the people” truly means all of us. 

Throughout our 100-year history, we’ve held presidents of all parties accountable. As a nonpartisan organization, we don’t oppose candidates or officials, but we’ve spent a century protecting and expanding civil liberties and civil rights. So when Trump took the national stage, we were prepared. We issued a clarion call after the election, reminding then president-elect Trump and his colleagues that if they followed through on their discriminatory and hateful policies they touted, they would face the full firepower of the ACLU, our state affiliates, and our supporters. 

Even before Trump took his oath of office, we began building legal strategies to respond to his most prominent campaign promises. As a result of our commitments, an outpouring of support from communities saw the ACLU’s budget and staff size more than double, increasing the number of its litigators by 45 percent. After Trump’s inauguration, the ACLU launched People Power, a nationwide grassroots organizing program to mobilize people across the country to expand and protect civil liberties and civil rights.

https://twitter.com/ACLU/statuses/1295374214053146624

We’ve been busy. Among the 400 legal actions, we filed a challenge to the inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 census, which resulted in a loss for Trump at the Supreme Court. We filed litigation to end the separation of children from their asylum-seeking parents, a result of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policies toward people crossing the Southern border. We filed a  series of legal actions to protect abortion access for unaccompanied minors in immigration detention. And we filed several lawsuits to stop the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle our asylum system.

Throughout our 100-year history, we’ve evolved and adapted to the times. Our strength is powered by deep experience and expertise, and activated by our ability to be nimble and break down barriers wherever they arise. 

We’ve always known that we can’t do this work alone. We are indebted to all of you who have taken action in your communities, from the streets of your towns and cities, to city council meetings and statehouses, to the ballot box. We’ve come this far because of you and your dedication to demand change. But we still have a long way to go. We can’t win this fight without you. Together, we will chart the next chapter and continue to build the nation that we are fighting for. The America not only conceived in liberty and justice for all, but one where those ideals are real for all of us: an America worth fighting for.