My apologies to Judith Viorst, but when I read about Greg Abbott’s draconian abortion law, my immediate reaction was that Greg Abbott is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad man, and it’s not a day-long problem. At the time, I knew little about him, but wondered what manner of man has the gall to try and make an end run around the Supreme Court; the self-entitlement to eliminate a woman’s right to choose; the brazenness to redefine life as when a fetal heartbeat is heard; the cruelty to declare war on such a vulnerable population during a time of crisis in their lives, including those who have been raped or experienced incest; the cunning and unadulterated evil to turn enforcement over to private citizens who are encouraged to inform on their fellow Americans, and are incentivized as abortion bounty hunters who can seek out anyone who helps these women.
When one considers that this abortion bill has become law at the same time as Abbott’s permitless carry of handguns, in a state with the second highest number of COVID cases in the country, and when domestic terrorism is on the rise, it is either pure lunacy or a calculated hit against Biden.
For me, “conservatism” doesn’t justify or even explain what Abbott has done, so I decided to find out more about him. For those of you who don’t know why Greg Abbott has been in a wheelchair for the last 37 years, this is the abbreviated story. When he was 26 years old, had recently finished law school, and was studying with a friend for the Bar examination, they decided to take a break and go for a run in a Houston neighborhood. It was a windy day, and a 75-foot oak tree snapped, fell on him, and crushed his spine. As Abbott described the accident to Brian D. Sweany in a 2013 article in Texas Monthly when he was running for governor, “It hit me in the back and knocked me down. It broke bones in my vertebrae, which pierced my spinal cord. I had fractured ribs, which poked into some of my organs. The pain was incomprehensible.” The local hospital, which was more like a clinic didn't know what to do with him because they couldn’t handle an injury of this magnitude. After five hours Abbott was transferred to another hospital, where they saved his life, but couldn’t operate on him for a few more days. His surgery included inserting two steel rods near his spine (where they will remain for life), and he stayed there for six weeks before transferring to rehab where they told him he would never walk again.
And, for the rest of his life, Abbott has had to deal with all the adjustments that paraplegia requires. While Abbott and his wife Cecilia whom he married in 1981 are quoted in the article as “agreeing that the tragedy made them more determined,” I have read that is Abbott’s standard line. He says he never thinks about what “might have been,” or dwells on what happened.
However, when asked, Cecilia said, “In my mind I could see what we were not going to have,” because they had wanted a large family (and ultimately adopted a daughter). “There was a grieving process for what was lost, for everything that went away.” All Abbott discusses are the positives: “The accident brought out the work ethic my parents had instilled in me. I was still wearing the body jacket and learning how to move around when I went to work at the law office (his first professional job). I wasn’t even able to wear a suit. My bosses loved that because just think what it did for anyone with an excuse for not getting their job done. But I’ll tell you this astonishing fact: Cecilia and I believe our lives are better after the accident than before. I think there’s a greater appreciation for life.”
While bravery certainly is an admirable quality, and I can’t even imagine what Abbott went through, and have great empathy for him in that regard, I believe Abbott is disingenuous at best. While I don’t have first-hand knowledge of paraplegia, my recently deceased husband mostly was bedridden for four years due to lumbar spinal stenosis, and Parkinsonism. I was his primary caregiver and am well aware how difficult and uncomfortable his life had become, and despite maintaining a positive attitude, he longed for the life we once had shared. Yet, he only was in terrible shape for two years, and Abbott has been paralyzed below the waist for nearly four decades. And, I won’t even go into what it’s like to wear a catheter, and Depends, and be unable to walk to the bathroom, wipe your own bottom, feed yourself, and everything else.
So, when Abbott says “our lives are better after the accident than before,” we have to realize this statement was carefully crafted by political strategists to overcome disability stereotypes. As Dave Carney, a top adviser to the Abbott campaign puts it, “If a person in a wheelchair can be governor of Texas, a person in a wheelchair can be anything.” What they also say is: “While some politicians talk about having a spine of steel, Governor Abbott actually has one. He’ll use his steel spine to fight for you and for every Texas family!”
But, unfortunately that’s not true. While I ordinarily would applaud Abbott for the amazing courage, resolve, and perseverance he has shown in coping with his disability, and achieving success, it is marred by the fact that he only cares about himself. And, the best example of that is his campaign in Texas to deprive at least 3 million disabled Texans of their rights. “When he was Texas' Attorney General, Abbott went to court to declare that Texas has sovereign immunity from the Americans with Disability Act. So, while private businesses, Texas cities and counties and even federal actions within Texas are all subject to the ADA, the state of Texas isn’t, and thus can’t be sued for discrimination. He also tried to have the ADA abolished due to “unconstitutionality,” but that effort failed.
Also, as Attorney General, Abbott advocated for and helped secure a tort-reform bill, which “makes it impossible for innocent victims to be fairly compensated for their serious injuries.” Under that bill, “if a patient is left paralyzed from the waist down (like Abbott was) due to a doctor’s negligence (his was a freaky accident), it caps non-economic damages at $250,000 with no built-in increases over time to keep up with the rising cost of living.”
Yet, Abbott didn’t have those restraints in 1984 when his lawyer filed a personal injury lawsuit over his accident, and won a multimillion dollar settlement. It not only financially set up Abbott for life, but helped him pay for medical expenses, and services he needed related to being paralyzed. By 2020, Abbott will have received $11 million (using inflation-adjusted dollars ) from his suit. Yet, because of his policies, from 2013 on, every other disabled person who filed a similar policy could only receive $250,000.
And, that is who Greg Abbott is. “The ‘innocent victim’ Greg Abbott continues to enjoy the benefits of an $11 million settlement while the ‘politician’ Greg Abbott fights against the rights of others victims by denying them the same rights afforded him. “
And Greg Abbott is also the governor who failed to stop COVID from spreading in Texas. As of today, Texas ranks 2nd in the number of COVID cases in the nation, over 56,000 people have died of COVID, and 4,400 people died last month. As of Sept. 2, 13,851 Texans were hospitalized for the coronavirus. On September 3, 320 new deaths were reported, and Texas schools confirmed more than 50,000 COVID cases.
So, as Abbott was grabbing headlines on his border wall plans, no-mask mandates, Texas Legislature antics, and voting restrictions (which adversely affect the disabled as well as people of color), Texans were needlessly dying, and their children and grandchildren were filling up pediatric wards in overcrowded hospitals. Perhaps Dr. David Portugal a cardiologist in Sugarland, Texas said it best, "Governor Abbott has failed us. A republican state legislature has failed us. These leaders should be held accountable and be asked to explain how they can justify taking actions that are killing their fellow Texans."
Why does this matter to the rest of us other than we share a sense of humanity, which should be enough? Because, so many of Abbott’s policies (and the 666 bills which became laws on September 1)—run against the grain of what we Democrats believe in—and what he’s doing can be seen as a blueprint for other Republican-led states. At a time when we need COVID numbers to fall, they will rise; when we are already threatened by domestic terrorists, Abbott is arming Texas citizens; and as Biden is seeking partisanship to pass his infrastructure bills, Governor Greg Abbott is declaring war on democratic ideals and democracy in a very partisan way.
Although Abbott’s poll ratings have recently dropped, he is expected to win a third term as governor in 2022 and has a war chest of 55 million dollars. He also intends on running for president in 2024, and with the publicity he’s getting from right-wing media, perhaps his abortion bill was his way of tossing his hat into the ring. And, that’s why I say, Greg Abbott is a terribly, horrible, no good, very bad man, and it’s not a day-long problem.
