Day: March 20, 2025

Greetings and glad tidings, Meteor readers,

‘Tis the spring equinox! Time to go outside and frolic in the forests. Good luck finding an egg-laying rabbit.

In today’s newsletter, we are, for the umpteenth time, talking about Texas. Plus, the long-awaited executive order attempting to get rid of the Department of Education, and your weekend reading list.

Tree huggin,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Ten-gallon nightmare: Last Friday, Texas state senator Bryan Hughes introduced the most expansive anti-abortion bill the state has seen since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Get comfortable, because we’re going to be here a while.

What’s in SB 2880? Well…everything, basically. The bill allows for anyone to file a civil lawsuit against a company or individual for playing any part in facilitating an abortion in Texas or for a Texas resident. Individuals and groups can also be sued for being an “information content provider.” As journalist Jessica Valenti points out in her coverage of the bill, even apps like Venmo and Signal could get sued for their part in an abortion. “If the bill worked, it would be a lot harder to find information about abortion online in Texas and potentially everywhere else,” another abortion expert told The 19th. Since “the internet is the same everywhere,” this law could potentially be used to attack companies throughout the United States that host abortion information.

The bill also allows for the “biological father” of an “unborn child” to bring a wrongful death suit against abortion providers in any state, regardless of his relationship to the mother. (Yes, even one-night stands.) There is a carve-out in the law that stipulates a man cannot bring a suit if the child was conceived from an act of sexual assault, but we’re betting it’ll be about as effective as other rape-and-incest exceptions in abortion bans. (That is to say, not very.)

But wait! There’s more. This bill gets extremely particular about medication abortion, allowing civil actions against people who  “manufacture, possess, distribute, mail, transport, deliver, prescribe, or provide an abortion-inducing drug in any manner to or from any person or location” in Texas. Bought some pills from heyjane.com to stockpile in case of emergency? Lawsuit! Live in a blue state and mailed pills to your friend in need who happens to live in Texas? Lawsuit! Once again, there is a carve-out for any emergencies related to preserving the life of the mother, but as we’ve seen in a number of cases out of Texas, that doesn’t always work in real life.

I hope you don’t think we’re done yet. SB 2880 is so nefariously thorough that abortion funds are also caught in the crosshairs. The bill would make it a felony for an individual or group to pay for or reimburse any costs incurred by obtaining an abortion, including the costs of traveling out of state for care. That $20 you gave someone for gas to get to a clinic across state lines? A second-degree felony if this bill becomes law. In fact, if I tell you right now to go support Fund Texas Choice, I could potentially be sued when this bill passes, as could my boss for owning a website supplying this information, as could my editor, Nona, who has to edit these long, rambling sentences. You, on the other hand, could be subject to a criminal suit because you actually sent the money. That is how thorough it is.

In the words of a famous Texan, ring the alarm.

The bill was read for the first time in the state senate yesterday and has already been referred to the committee for State Affairs. Should it pass and be signed, the law would go into effect in September—but will probably face a number of challenges in court from abortion rights and First Amendment groups.

If you live in Texas, call your state senator. If you don’t, continue supporting abortion funds until you can’t anymore.

AND:

• In a long-anticipated move, Trump signed an executive order today instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle her own department. The federal government can’t unilaterally shut down the Department of Education—even McMahon has acknowledged it needs Congress to do that—but, as with USAID, the Trump administration plans to dramatically cut staff and contracts to the point where the department cannot function. This move would be devastating for the country’s most vulnerable students. While federal funding makes up only a small percentage of state’s school budgets, the department handles things like civil rights enforcement and funding for low-income school districts, as well as services for the 15 percent of students who have disabilities. Meanwhile, eliminating the department is incredibly unpopular. A poll last month from NPR/PBS News/Marist found that 63 percent of voters oppose the move. (That includes people in red states, which generally get more funding from the department than blue ones.)

RUINING KIDS' FUTURES RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. BOLD. (VIA GETTY)

• Another high-profile arrest has been made at another prestigious university. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown originally from India who is married to a Palestinian American, was arrested Monday night by Department of Homeland Security officers outside his home and told his visa had been revoked. Suri’s wife, Mapheze Sale, has been doxxed in the past for her protests over Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Much like Mahmoud Khalid, who was also arrested for his political views, Suri is being detained at a center in Louisiana.

• A new report from the World Meteorological Association found that there were 152 “unprecedented” extreme weather events in 2024, a majority of which took place in Europe. Last year’s events injured more than one million people globally and displaced over 800,000 people—the highest number of displacements in more than a decade.

• It may be hard to believe, but there is actually something hotter than the earth’s rising core temperature, and that is brand-new Instagram official couple Ben Shelton and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman. Am I jealous? No, not at all, my eyes have always been this shade of neon green.

MY HEART WILL GO ON. (VIA INSTAGRAM) 

• In today’s edition of my long-running column Who Asked for This: Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced that a sequel to the 2017 film Coco is currently in the works. Pero quien pido esto? If you haven’t seen it, Coco is a perfect film. No notes. And the worst thing you can do with a perfect or even extremely good film is to give it a sequel. Did we not learn our lesson with Moana 2? Or Gladiator II?

WEEKEND READING 📚

On denial: Earlier this month the Trump administration received a petition to grant Puerto Rico’s independence via executive order. The move has had a chilling and divisive effect on the island. (The Latino Newsletter)

On the end of an era: An inside look at the final days of Voice of America. (Columbia Journalism Review)

On the record: Elon Musk’s fearless estranged daughter calls him a “pathetic man-child.” (Teen Vogue)

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