But if SB8 represents the loss of the ultimate choice, it is the pinnacle of choices lost to Latinas that went seemingly ignored or unconnected to the cause of reproductive rights. SB8 was built on lawsuits and decisions—victories achieved—over the Latina body that involved voting rights, border security, education and policing.

In the absence of a public history about Latinos in the United States, the Texas Latina is politically vulnerable. There is little knowledge of the long assault on Latinas’ bodies, from the forced sterilizations in California to the experimentation with birth control on Puerto Rican women. The history of her marginalization from the voting booth is largely ignored, the long fight to win the right to vote forgotten and without symbolic meaning. Discrimination against her lacks social or political currency.