The American Taliban

The American Taliban

By Thomas Coffin

Attached to this essay is a link to an article I submitted to several religious institutions, which concerns the draconian treatment of women in El Salvador at the hands of a de facto theocracy which enforces religious doctrine regarding abortion through the State’s penal and criminal justice system. https://sites.google.com/view/blackberry-pie-society/thomas-coffin-essays/state-penal-laws-and-the-catholic-church

I have yet to receive an acknowledgment of its receipt, much less a response.

Also attached is a link to a media report about a victim of El Salvador’s laws, undoubtedly one of those featured in my article, who has brought her human rights violation before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where to my understanding it is currently pending.

Recently, Texas enacted legislation that arguably exceeds even the reach of the penal system in El Salvador against women subject to its jurisdiction. In sum, Texas is outsourcing enforcement of its criminal sanctions against abortion by deputizing its citizens (most of whom will be affiliated with religious groups) and authorizing “bounties” to be awarded for reporting and filing civil suits against women and their providers suspected of violating the Texas abortion laws.

Without exaggeration, this is reminiscent of Nazi Germany, which encouraged children to inform on their parents if they dared to criticize the Nazi Party, which was defined as a crime in Germany’s penal code and subjected the offender to imprisonment. Members of the Hitler Youth organization were rewarded for reporting conversations between Mom and Dad. All you women—welcome to Texas.

I have to wonder if the Texas Legislature knows (or even cares) that many women seek medical care at clinics such as Planned Parenthood for medical reasons other than abortion, e.g., cancer screenings, birth control, general health check-ups, etc. There appears to be no standard of “probable cause” (a requirement for the real police, as opposed to the vigilante posse) to justify a bounty hunter to turn in a visitor to the clinic in an effort to collect a reward, and the persecutor is immunized by the Texas law from having to pay the legal costs incurred by his/her target.

This is also quite similar to the model employed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, who have long persecuted women for doing anything that rubs their patriarchal minds the wrong way. Accessing school, having a job, playing soccer, leaving the house—the list is infinitely long. Again—welcome to Texas.

The only good that comes from this is that Texas has removed all pretext and euphemistic covering blather from its descent into extremist theocracy and totalitarianism in its war against women.

As I pointed out in my account of the El Salvador experience, women experiencing even natural miscarriages have the burden of proof in that sovereignty’s criminal system and are turned in even by doctors whom they desperately turn to for medical help. That State even has forensic vaginal inspectors to gather evidence for prosecution.

This is totalitarianism and government by a theocracy. It is exactly what our Founders prohibited when they adopted the 1st Amendment with its anti-establishment clause. The wall between Church and State has been breached.

That the United States Supreme Court has allowed Texas to enforce this law by refusing to stay its effect pending constitutional challenges is as baffling as it is alarming. One wonders if that institution has lost its compass and gone adrift.

The Taliban are rejoicing.

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9.4.2021