Religious objections to abortion are completely subjective and should not be the basis of public health policy. When Texas Republicans contend life begins at conception, they are conflating opinion and fact.

Rabbi Fred N. Reiner states in a letter-to-the-editor in The New York Times, “As a Jew, I believe that life begins at birth, based on the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic texts.”

Texas Republican Christians believe they have a right to dictate and elevate their religion above all others and make their religious dogma the law of the state.

While this can be argued in the Supreme Court, Congress and academia, the damage done to women accelerates. Denying legal access to abortion does not eliminate abortion.

According to the World Population Review, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country and the maternal mortality rate is higher than it has been in decades. Based on the most recent data from 2018 the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is 17.4 deaths per 100,000 births. The United States is also the only developed country to see maternal mortality rates rising.

According to Pew Charitable Trusts, religions around the world support women’s right to reproductive choice regarding abortion. Women have the religious, moral, ethical and autonomous right to safe, legal abortion. The opposite imposes grave harm to women.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee states that access to abortion and prevention of maternal mortality are universal basic human rights.

Respecting the right to life must include the mother’s right to life. The committee states:

… restrictions on the ability of women or girls to seek abortion must not, inter alia, jeopardize their lives, subject them to physical or mental pain or suffering which violates article 7, discriminate against them or arbitrarily interfere with their privacy. States parties must provide safe, legal and effective access to abortion where the life and health of the pregnant woman or girl is at risk, and where carrying a pregnancy to term would cause the pregnant woman or girl substantial pain or suffering, most notably where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or is not viable. [8] In addition, States parties may not regulate pregnancy or abortion in all other cases in a manner that runs contrary to their duty to ensure that women and girls do not have to undertake unsafe abortions, and they should revise their abortion laws accordingly. [9] For example, they should not take measures such as criminalizing pregnancies by unmarried women or apply criminal sanctions against women and girls undergoing abortion [10] or against medical service providers assisting them in doing so, since taking such measures compel women and girls to resort to unsafe abortion. States parties should not introduce new barriers and should remove existing barriers [11] that deny effective access by women and girls to safe and legal abortion [12], including barriers caused as a result of the exercise of conscientious objection by individual medical providers. [13] States parties should also effectively protect the lives of women and girls against the mental and physical health risks associated with unsafe abortions. In particular, they should ensure access for women and men, and, especially, girls and boys, [14] to quality and evidence-based information and education about sexual and reproductive health [15] and to a wide range of affordable contraceptive methods, [16] and prevent the stigmatization of women and girls seeking abortion.[17] States parties should ensure the availability of, and effective access to, quality prenatal and post-abortion health care for women and girls, [18] in all circumstances, and on a confidential basis. [19]

Politics and religion have no place in basic public health policy. The U.S. Supreme Court’s failure to step in to nullify the criminalization of abortion in Texas essentially allows Texas to violate the constitutional human rights of women. In her dissent of the Supreme Court’s decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the Texas law is “a breathtaking act of defiance — of the Constitution, of this Court’s precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions.”

It’s not just the Taliban that violates the basic, universal human rights of women.