Bounty Hunting in Texas

My son called me on FaceTime this week about a school project.  He was assigned to interview someone over 30 years old, and to ask them about their experiences on September 11, 2001.  I was a resident of Manhattan that day, and my son asked to interview me.  I was able to spend a few minutes “on the record” talking to him about some horrific experiences in my life, what it was like, and how much I loved and valued him for having gone through that day.  It was complex and somewhat “therapeutic” for me to even have that conversation with him.  He is 13 years old.  

            He called me because 13 years ago his mother made a choice. 

            My son was not a planned pregnancy.  Long before I was a lawyer, I was a scared kid that was looking at a positive pregnancy test and didn’t have a clue or a plan.  Neither of us did.  Our choice…which was always “her” choice…led to me becoming a card-carrying diaper bag dad, an elementary school volunteer, a Little League Baseball coach, and being given both a son and a “best friend.”  I definitely didn’t do everything perfect along the way, but I can’t even imagine what my life would even look like had he not come into it. Everything changed, and I can’t articulate the gratitude that I have for him being in this world with me.  

            That is, in a non-comprehensive nutshell, MY story…or at least part of it.  But, quite literally, “Houston, we have a problem.” 

In essence, these bills coming out of Texas are weaponizing citizens of the state against women who are making choices that they are afforded by law.  I, as a practicing attorney, can not tell you how adamantly I oppose this concept. First, this is a terrible way to enforce policy.  It encourages anarchy of one person against another.  Second, it blatantly disrespects current law…so what happens when the “subject matter” is different, and this type of legal-loophole is employed against something you, me, and everyone else does not want?  Horrible precedent.  To give any person “jurisdiction” to sue and what is, in essence, a $10,000 Bounty on any doctor performing an abortion plus-6 weeks out is, in my professional opinion, and absolutely INSANE way manipulate the legal system that, for better or worse, I swore to uphold.  

            This writing is to add my name, and my law firm, Vivere Law, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to the long list of attorneys, judges, and citizens in opposition to Texas Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 1515.  

            “Abortion” is and always will be a very “hot” issue.  It invokes emotions, family, religion, and deeply personal experiences.  Life is valuable.  Our children our irreplaceable.  Our rights are self-evident. One of those “rights,” as prescribed by a long history of litigation and law, allows women to make certain choices about her life, body, and circumstance…and I support that.  I also will always support the law, and this is not the way these issues are litigated. These bills are a cop-out, work-around…drafted and enforced by cowards.  This is not the way the “law” works…this is the reason people look at lawyers and lawmakers and mock them.  If we don’t follow our own rules, why should anyone else?  It’s pathetic.  

            My personal story doesn’t end where it started.  I have been on both “sides” of this coin, to be honest without detail. A deeply rooted Baptist kid, turned New York City fashion model, turned small-town lawyer…but for the purposes of THIS conversation, the common denominator is not “me”…but it is “choice”…and that right is something I think the women in this world both have, and should have the legal profession stand up for.  

            I look forward to many years of FaceTime calls and experiences with my son, and for all his mother and I at times don’t see eye-to-eye on, she made the best choice of all time 13 years ago and I forever will thank her for that. 

             But the choice was hers.  She carried that baby, that turned into that toddler, that turned into this teenager.  It was not me, it was her…and she chose.  As she should have.  

            I love you Texas.  The laws and way you do things there are both “fantastic” and “crazy”…and they are “crazy” only because you do things to push “freedom” forward in every direction possible.  I love that about you.  

            So with all due respect on this one Texas, “Get your shit together.” 

Daniel C. Minium, Esq, Vivere Law, Harrisburg, Pa

Opposing Texas Senate Bill 8 & House Bill 1515