When Texas lawmakers that tell you they hate women, believe them. I do. And then I fight back.

Well, here we are in Texas, except not really, because look what’s happening to women there. My sisters, when they tell you they hate you, believe them.

On Tuesday, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a voter suppression bill into law, a reporter asked him about his other new draconian law that bans abortions for women beyond the sixth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions.

“Why force a rape or incest victim to carry a pregnancy to term?” the reporter asked.

Surrounded by applauding men, Abbott answered a question he liked better: “Rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets. So goal No. 1 in the state of Texas is to eliminate rape.”

Crime data makes clear that women in Texas have thousands of reasons to distrust Abbott on this. In 2019, the state’s Department of Public Safety showed that, of 14,656 rapes reported that year, only 23% of them “cleared.” Also, as ProPublica reported the previous year, a designation of “cleared” doesn’t always mean solved.

That’s some track record.

Abbott didn’t explain how law enforcement would recognize these rapists on the streets of Texas. Nor did he acknowledge that 8 out of 10 rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. This is what happens when one’s magical thinking erupts into policy, out loud.

Vigilantes in Texas, talking periods on TV and swatting flies in DC

This new, pro-vigilante law deputizes citizens to sue any person they think is aiding or abetting an abortion, and dangles a $10,000 bounty for each abortion they out.

Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law, played out the potential impact in an interview with MarketWatch: “The defendant – whether a provider, funder, clergy person, friend or family member – pays the damages which are set at a minimum of $10,000. If there are several defendants, they each pay $10,000 in damages. So a single abortion could generate tens of thousands of dollars for the bounty hunter plaintiffs.”

Most women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., helpfully pointed out in a CNN interview, “Six weeks pregnant means two weeks late for your period.” There are many reasons a woman’s menstrual period can be delayed. AOC cited stress and diet changes as examples.

How great is it to see a member of Congress recite the basic facts of a woman’s menstrual cycle on national television? I have lived to see the day, my friends, and if balloons didn’t kill sea birds, I’d be launching a them right now.

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During a recent White House news briefing, a reporter for Global Catholic Network repeatedly pressed White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on how President Joe Biden, a Catholic, could support abortion rights. It was a horsefly-meets-tail moment.

Biden “believes that it's up to a woman to make those decisions, and up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor," Psaki said. "I know you've never faced those choices, nor have you ever been pregnant, but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing. The president believes that right should be respected."

'Clearly unconstitutional': Biden's Justice Department sues Texas over abortion law

It is gratifying to behold Psaki’s gift for swatting away attempts to drag women back to the Before Times, when men were dusty cowboys and women swallowed gunpowder and threw themselves down stairs to end unwanted pregnancies. Yippee ki yay.

Some have objected to Psaki’s casting the decision to have an abortion as a difficult one, insisting that for most women it’s a matter-of-fact choice with no regret. But one generalization does not remedy another. I’ve interviewed hundreds of women who have undergone abortions, and I am uncomfortable offering tidy conclusions about how they felt about them.

However, if a woman’s heart must be pierced and shattered before you can feel OK about supporting her right to an abortion, perhaps your time is better spent exploring why you are so invested in another woman’s anguish.

Sit down, Grandma? Not while there are women whose rights are at risk

The minute this column goes live, I will start hearing from the usual critics demanding to know why no-longer-fertile me cares about other women’s right to safe and legal abortions. Their collective refrain: Sit down, Grandma.

I love being mistaken for harmless.

Women my age discover a whole new level of power once we’re no longer fretting about birth control and tampon supplies. We’re too young to give up and too old to shut up. For most women of my generation, it’s always been easier to fight for others, instead of themselves. This crisis calls to them.

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Like millions of other older women, I still care about abortion rights because I care about women. For too many of us, our commitment is also a memorial to all the women who didn’t live to tell their stories.

I’m a columnist married to a Democratic U.S. senator, and every so often our front porch fills up with USPS bins full of postcards from people who oppose abortion rights. They all say the same thing, except for the ones with handwritten postscripts about how our souls are destined for hell and how happy that makes them.

I’ve never met these people, but I know them. They are the same Americans who never once sent us postcards about babies being ripped from the arms of their immigrant mothers at the borders. They have never written – not once – on behalf of children during this pandemic, pleading for policies and vaccines to keep them safe.

For years, they have shown me how much they hate women.

This is me letting them know I believe them.

USA TODAY columnist Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winner whose novel, “The Daughters of Erietown,” is a New York Times bestseller. You can reach her at CSchultz@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @ConnieSchultz

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion law proves women's rights simply don't matter in Texas