#3: Texas Senate Bill #314

In January, Texas lawmakers introduced Senate Bill #314. The bill states that any food or product containing aborted fetal tissue must be clearly labeled as such. Yes. You read that right. 

Background: Abortion has been a heated area of debate and political contention in the 1980s, before this, people tended to separate the religious aspect of the issue from the political aspect. Even most Republicans did not support banning abortion due to what they viewed as an overreach of big government on the people. Today, abortion is one of the most dividing topics for American politics and is sure to be a big factor in the upcoming 2024 election due to the revocation of Roe V Wade.

For years, right leaning media companies have published stories about the use of aborted fetal tissue in vaccination production and in food and beverages (examples: 1 2 3 4 ... just to name a few). This narrative, despite being discredited by scientists, the FDA, and researchers, continues to seep into American political discussion and now lawmaking. Production of articles based off of misleading information and data is incredibly harmful to the reader. Recent studies of people who consumed right wing media showed that they were much more susceptible to believing conspiracy theories (such as pizza gate) than those who consumed mainstream media (link). In this case, mainstream media fact checked the research and called out the lawmakers on numerous occasions (1 2 3).

Creation of laws that base themselves on right winged conspiracies is even more harmful to the balance of political education in this country. More and more people, including lawmakers, are basing their opinions and beliefs off of misleading, outright wrong information. The American public searches for a sense of trust in their leadership, what does that say when there are leaders creating laws off of misinformation?