Hey, if they want to go, well, bye now. Take your baby killing ways with you (behind the paywall LA Times piece here)
Column: As professionals flee antiabortion policies, red states face a brain drain
A few days ago, a university headhunter reached out to Elizabeth T. Jacobs, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona, to gauge her interest in moving to a leading university in Texas.
Under normal circumstances and in professional terms, the opportunity would have seemed intriguing. “It was an attractive situation,” Jacobs told me. “It was at an institution I have a lot of respect for, and I would not have dismissed it out of hand.”
But the political environment in Texas is not normal, in Jacobs’ view. She informed the recruiter that “under the current state leadership I didn’t think my family would be safe in that state.” (snip)
Really, no state is going to prosecute for saving the life of a mother in a real medical emergency, and Texas’ law allows for such. Texas, though, differs in what they consider a medical emergency, which is when a life is truly in danger, from the abortion supporters, who see not being able to go to the club and party because of a pregnancy as a medical emergency
University faculty members in red states are publicly expressing concerns about the impact of exclusionary right-wing policies on their efforts to attract students and recruit qualified people to their institutions. Some have put out public feelers soliciting job offers from states with less-restrictive abortion laws.
“As of tomorrow, I am on the open market,” University of Utah neuroscientist Bryan William Jones tweeted June 24, the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. Jones said he would be willing to bring his 12 lab members, of whom eight are women, with him. “I will not endanger my team,” he wrote.
Well, see ya. Enjoy the high taxes, high cost of living, high crime, and high controls on your life in the Blue states. And never come back.
Quality of life is a major issue in recruitment discussions, says David Williamson Shaffer, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin who successfully hired a candidate last year who was also being wooed by Stanford and Harvard.
Being able to get an abortion because of irresponsible behavior is a quality of life issue? Have fun walking through the drug needles, pee, and poop while dodging homeless people to your tiny apartment you can barely afford.
At the end of the day, how many will really, truly leave? Probably not a lot, especially those who escaped the hellhole of Blue states. Unfortunately. Let them all go.
Read: Bummer: There’s A Brain Drain Of Abortion Lovers Leaving Red State »