Texas recently passed a law allowing private citizens to sue anyone who performs an abortion or assists a woman in getting one, targeting any abortions after the detection of a fetal "heartbeat." Join Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid to analyze the injustice of this law and its implications for women in Texas and beyond.

Among the topics covered:

• Key facts about the new Texas law [0:43]
• How the law will likely impact women; [3:50]
• The actual consequences of the law to date; [12:26]
• Legal challenges to the law; [14.32]
• How the law encourages “vigilante justice”; [17:04]
• How this law sets a dangerous precedent for evading judicial review; [21:08]
• How the law undermines the rule of objective law; [24:53]
• Why rights do not begin with the heartbeat (or at conception) according to Ayn Rand; [34:45]
• The assault on abortion rights in many other American states; [44:42]
• Ayn Rand on the importance of abortion rights and the evil of those oppose them; [50:26]
• Why we shouldn’t cede to anti-abortionists the title of “pro-life”; [55:11]
• Why the Texas law doesn’t respect human life or highlight the importance of sex education; [57:04]
• Why abortion should be permitted until birth. [1:02:53]

Mentioned in the discussion are the Ayn Rand Lexicon entry “Abortion,” (https://courses.aynrand.org/lexicon/a...) Ayn Rand’s talk “Of Living Death,” (https://courses.aynrand.org/works/of-...) and Ben Bayer’s articles “Abortion Allows Women to Protect What’s Sacred about Life,” (https://newideal.aynrand.org/abortion...) “Ayn Rand’s Radical Case for Abortion Rights,” (https://newideal.aynrand.org/ayn-rand...) and “Science without Philosophy Can’t Resolve Abortion Debate.” (https://newideal.aynrand.org/science-...)