Texas Gov. Greg Abbott may be about to get some interesting mail if women follow through on a protest idea that's gone viral on Facebook this week. In response to the new rule in Texas requiring medical facilities to cremate or bury fetal remains from abortions and miscarriages, women are encouraging each other to send bloody tampons and panty liners to the governor's office.
"[I]f you aren't sure about the fertilized status of your used tampons, panty liners, or indefinitely ruined underpants, place them in a 4x6 bubble envelope and mail them to the office of Governor Greg Abbott for testing," reads a screenshot of the original post from an unidentified person. Facebook user Ele Chupik shared the screenshot on Monday and her post has since been shared more than 16,000 times.
"This new rule isn't a public health issue, it was put into place strategically to burden clinics and women financially, thereby decreasing already dangerously limited access to safe, legal abortion," Chupik wrote.
Lest men feel left out of this protest, Broadly reported this week that Satanic Temple spokesperson Jex Blackmore had started Cumrags for Congress, encouraging people to send Abbott samples of semen — or at least fake versions of it smeared on socks. Satanists have issued a statement that the law violates their religious beliefs by legislating burial rites.
The idea mirrors the Periods for Pence movement that began in Indiana last April, in which women flooded then-Gov. Pence's office with calls about their menses in response to his state's restrictive abortion law, which has since been struck down.