Diaz: Women shaming is back with a vengeance

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The Scarlet Letter," the protagonist is forced to go through life reminding the 17th century Puritans that she had conceived a daughter through an affair.

We all know how the story goes – Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery and is forced to wear the letter A.

The Boston Puritans succeeded. Hester was branded an adulterer as she struggled to rebuild her life.

This kind of branding – one that lasts a lifetime – is what 21st-century puritans, also known as the pro-life movement, want to achieve.

Theirs is a campaign for a nationwide ban on abortions, but it includes shaming of women who underwent the act. They want to burn a permanent mark on these women's conscience so they’ll never forget their “sin.”

In Texas: We must bury fetal tissue

That’s the motive behind new rules in Texas requiring health-care facilities that perform abortions to bury the fetal remains instead of disposing of them. Beginning on Dec. 19, the burials must be done regardless of how long the fetal tissue has been gestating, according to The New York Times.

The Times reports that under the rules, the fetal tissue has to be handled like a deceased person, “using the process of cremation, entombment, burial, or placement in a niche or by using the process of cremation followed by placement of the ashes in a niche, grave, or scattering of ashes as authorized by law.”

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott championed the proposal after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the state’s law cutting the number of abortion clinics, the Texas Tribune reported.

It’s clear what the puritans in Texas want. They’ve failed to make it harder for women to get an abortion, so they’re going after their conscience. They’re handing down a sentence of guilt by forcing them to deal with fetal tissue.

The Texas puritans don’t take into account the circumstances that prompt women to end their pregnancy.

In Ohio: No abortions after 6 weeks

Nor do the puritans in Ohio. Lawmakers there recently approved the so-called “heartbeat bill," which bans abortion when a heartbeat can be heard or, on average, around six weeks into a pregnancy, reported BuzzFeed.

In Ohio, the legislation, which went to the governor’s desk but was vetoed by Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday, had no exception for cases of rape or incest. Kasich did, however, sign into law a measure outlawing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Isn’t this pure punishment and shaming?

The Puritans portrayed in "The Scarlet Letter" never went away. They have merely reconstituted over time and are on a mission to keep women oppressed by denying them their own choices.

Their crusade against women is so emboldened by the election of Republican Donald Trump to the presidency that they’re racing through state legislatures to pass anti-abortion bills. And there is every indication they’ll pick up steam next year.

I’ve yet to meet any woman who boasts about having an abortion or who promotes it as a method of birth control.

Most are like me, just human beings seeking gender equality by empowering women to make their own choices.

To me, pro-choice means exactly that  —  respect for a woman who chooses to carry her pregnancy no matter the circumstances and the woman who decides to end it. The law should be there to protect both.

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1.