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LAST UPDATE | 1 Sep 2021
US PRESIDENT JOE Biden has pledged to defend abortion rights after a law that bans the procedure after six weeks – before many women even know they are pregnant – took effect in the conservative southern state of Texas.
The most restrictive abortion legislation in the country went into force in Texas at midnight today after the Supreme Court failed to act on an emergency request to block it.
“This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century,” Biden said in a reference to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion.
“And, outrageously, it deputises private citizens to bring lawsuits against anyone who they believe has helped another person get an abortion,” the Democratic president said.
“My administration is deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe v Wade nearly five decades ago and will protect and defend that right,” Biden said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a bill in May known as Senate Bill 8, or SB8, that bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is usually in the sixth week of pregnancy.
The Texas legislation makes no exception for rape or incest and would make it the hardest state in the country in which to get an abortion.
While similar laws have been passed in a dozen Republican-led conservative states, all had so far been blocked in the courts from going into force.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court on Monday asking it to stop the Texas law from taking effect.
The court declined to rule by midnight – although it may still eventually grant the request from rights groups and abortion providers to halt the so-called “heartbeat bill”.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, said the failure of the court to act has “delivered catastrophe to women in Texas,” and called the law “an all-out effort to erase the rights and protections of Roe v Wade”.
‘Cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful’
The ACLU said the impact of the bill will be “immediate and devastating.”
“Access to almost all abortion has just been cut off for millions of people,” the powerful civil rights association said.
“This abortion ban is blatantly unconstitutional,” it said. “We won’t stop fighting until it’s blocked.”
According to the ACLU, “approximately 85 to 90 percent” of women who obtain an abortion in Texas are at least six weeks into pregnancy.
The other states that have sought to enact restrictions on abortion in the early stages of pregnancy have been barred from doing so by Roe v Wade.
That decision allowed abortion so long as the fetus is not viable outside the womb, which is usually the case until the 22nd to 24th weeks of pregnancy.
Texas’s law is different from those of other states because it allows the public – rather than state officials such as prosecutors or health departments – to bring legal action to enforce the ban.
Everyday citizens are encouraged to report doctors who perform abortions or anyone who helped facilitate the procedure.
The Texas law “creates a bounty hunting scheme that encourages the general public to bring costly and harassing lawsuits against anyone who they believe has violated the ban,” the ACLU said.
“Anyone who successfully sues a health center worker, an abortion provider, or any person who helps someone access an abortion after six weeks will be rewarded with at least $10,000, to be paid by the person sued,” it said.
“Anti-abortion groups in Texas have already set up online forms enlisting people to sue anyone they believe is violating the law and encouraging people to submit ‘anonymous tips’ on doctors, clinics, and others who violate the law,” it said.
Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the Texas bill would force women to “travel out of state – in the middle of a pandemic – to receive constitutionally guaranteed health care”.
“Many will not be able to afford to,” Northup said. “It’s cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful.”
The Supreme Court is due to hear a case in the coming months involving a Mississippi law that prohibits abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy except in cases of medical emergency or a severe fetal abnormality.
It will be the first abortion case considered by the nation’s high court since former president Donald Trump cemented a conservative-leaning 6-3 majority on the nine-member panel.
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I’m an Irish programmer, living abroad, and would like to work remotely for an Irish company. (It’s always a good excuse for visiting home every now and then.) Even with the skills shortage, it seems that no employer is interested.
I’m also in a similar position (living/working in the UK), I like to check in every now and then with job opportunities in Ireland and it’s always 3-5 years industry experience. It seems to be case (to me at least) that you have to move abroad to get your experience before you can come back and apply for these jobs.
I think everyone can agree (having myself being in a similar position) that there is NO SKILLS SHORTAGE.
It is a shortage of desired experience.
Every company requires 3-5 years it seems. None are interested in investing in staff to train/mentor them.
My advice would be similar to other posters for those with no experience: learn how to build a phone app, or try to improve a piece of software from the likes of Sourceforge.net Then put that at the top of your CV.
Exactly – nobody cares if you got 86% in second year in Software Systems – they just want to know what you can do.
I don’t blame companies for wanting experience though – why take on a 22 year old when you can take on a 32 year old? Not like in 30 years time you’ll regret that the older guy is retiring sooner than the younger guy, in the software industry :-P
In my own case I have six years of industry experience with Java, but no one is taking the bait.
Spot on. If you don’t have a github.com account with some interesting projects or contributions, don’t bother.
Software engineering is one of the few jobs that you can MAKE your own experience. As someone who hires developers, I’d sooner hire someone with an interesting github portfolio than someone with more qualifications than you can shake a stick at.
It’s pretty easy to spot people interested in building cool things.
You’re a dying breed Dave. Outside of google very few companies are looking for software developers who are in any way creative. However, they are increasingly looking for staff who are multidisciplinary. Agile is pushing things that way… especially devops.
Software companies want experienced engineers so there is the catch how can you have a constant flow of graduates when they can’t get jobs becuase companies want experienced people.
The other flip side the money is crap starting off.
Money isn’t crap starting off – it’s in line with most other jobs of similar expertise. Companies wanting experienced people is a nuisance though, but I’m not sure how to resolve that.
Software is one of those fields though where you can gain expertise without experience. If your CV has a link to your website, your GitHub profile or some mobile app you’ve worked on they shouldn’t care how long you’ve been working at it.
If you’re passionate about software and have the skills to match, you have the ability to convey this to an employer :-)
Sofware developers are the highest paid graduates of any field. They are even paid more than intern doctors and graduate engineers. Of course those fields catch up fairly quickly.
Is there a list of these vacancies/job specifications?
There is no skills shortage. There is however a bias towards 25-35 year olds, with 5 years experience in a very specific and narrow skill set.
The employers (HR departments) have absolutely no comprehension that a programmer is a programmer, that’s the “skill”, the programming language is usually pretty irrelevant.
If you are over 45 years old, then the employers pretty much ignore you and your wealth of experience.
Irish companies have become very Americanised in the practice of promoting (very) young people to managerial positions, who are then biased towards hiring people their own age.
So what skills are we short of? If it’s technical that’s something to work towards for our universities and students, if it’s language of course it’s going to be easier for people of other nationalities.
So half are picked by Irish residents !
Very poor CV screening, interviewing and technical tests result in a lot of false negatives. I was recently made redundant, and have just been through the process. I picked up a job pretty quickly, but I am genuinely surprised by the lack of opportunities for some of the more junior guys, given that I would be happy to work with all of them again and they have access to great references from everyone at the company.
I constantly see companies that are doing web-development asking about program complexity and solving scalability problems that they more than likely don’t have. If they do have these problems, they are self inflicted by people reinventing the wheel rather than using something off the shelf. Another thing I noticed is the asking of questions assuming knowledge of specific tools. Web summit insisted on degrees from Universities only, with a clear bias towards Trinity college.
I personally would prefer to hire someone with less experience of these kind of things, and the simple ability to do simple things correctly and take direction. I don’t think I would have a problem hiring in the current environment.
Given that we are in the middle of a tech bubble, we should not spend too much time trying to correct these problems at the expense of the exchequer and let the companies who have the problem deal with these self inflicted problems themselves.
I’m an Irish IT graduate with over 10 yrs experience. I’ve taken time out to raise my child. I’ve been trying to get back to work for the last couple of years & companies are unwilling to even respond to my CV. I understand the concepts, am easily retrained & willing to work. It’s not a shortage of skills, I think it’s that companies want an exact set of skills & aren’t willing to re-train people. I know I’m not the only one in this position.
You’re right. as an employer, it’s not efficient to hire someone that will take weeks or months to retrain. The onus is on you to skill up. Not your employer. Ad I’ve stated before, in IT, it’s very VERY easy to upskill and create your own experience in the form of personal projects.
I’m still shocked at those who don’t understand this. Nobody owes you a job and being out of work for 10 years means you’re practically starting from scratch anyway. But that doesn’t matter, it’s very easy to start and build something yourself to modernise your skill set.
I’d sooner hire a 17 year old who just finished their leaving with a decent github profile then someone with 3 masters and no effort put into keeping themselves relevant.
Too few jobseekers actualky put themselves in the shoes of a potential employer.
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