You can’t understand what’s happening in Texas—and other states where abortion is now banned as a crime—without knowing the story of Pavlik Morozov.  

Pavel Trofimovich Morozov—better known by the diminutive Pavlik—was born on November 14, 1918. Until his 13th birthday, he did nothing to win the status of a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Then his chance came—in 1932, at the height of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s campaign to confiscate the grain of millions of Soviet peasants.

Stalin intended to convert the backward Soviet Union into a major industrial power within a decade. Central to this: Turning land privately farmed by peasants into collective farms which would be “great factories of grain.”

Morozov was a dedicated Communist who led the Young Pioneers at his school and supported Stalin’s forced collections policies.

In 1932, at the age of 13, Morozov reported his father, Trofim, to the political police, the GPU—the forerunner to the KGB.

According to one account,, Trofim, the chairman of the Gerasimovka Village Soviet, had been “forging documents and selling them to the bandits and enemies of the Soviet State” (as the sentence read).

Another account charges him with hoarding grain.

Pavlik Morozov

Trofim Morozov was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. There his sentence was changed to execution, which was carried out.

On September 3, 1932, Pavlik’s infuriated uncle, grandfather, grandmother and a cousin murdered him, along with his younger brother. 

Only the uncle escaped arrest by the GPU’s sentence to “the highest measure of social defense”—execution by a firing squad.

Soviet authorities quickly turned Pavlik Morozov into a Communist martyr. He became a subject for readings, plays, songs, a symphonic poem, a full-length opera and no fewer than six biographies.

The goal of these efforts: To encourage other Soviet children to inform on their parents.

Which brings us, appropriately enough, to 2023 America—and the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the Court’s historic decision legalizing abortion in 1973. 

For Right-wing states dominated by Republican governors and/or legislatures, it isn’t enough to forbid women in their states to get abortions. They insist on preventing them from terminating their pregnancies (even in cases of rape and/or incest) in states where abortion is legal.  

And key to making this a reality is turning America into a nation of Pavlik Morozovs.

Even before the Supreme Court handed down its infamous decision, Missouri gave the nation a foretaste of what was to come.

A first-of-its-kind proposal from Missouri lawmakers allowed private citizens to sue anyone who helped a Missouri resident obtain an abortion.

This included the out-of-state physician who performed the procedure to whoever helped transport a person across state lines to a clinic.

Republican state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman admitted that her measure specifically targeted a Planned Parenthood clinic in Illinois just across the river from St. Louis that opened in 2019 with the stated goal of serving Missouri patients.

Mary Elizabeth Coleman

“If you believe as I do that every person deserves dignity and respect and protection whether they’re born or unborn, then of course you want to protect your citizens, no matter where they are,” Coleman told POLITICO.

“If a Missouri resident is hurt, even in Illinois, by a product that they bought in Illinois, there is still jurisdiction for them to sue in a Missouri court because that’s home for them … and this is extending that same kind of thought to abortion jurisprudence.”

This totally ignores the huge difference between unknowingly buying a defective product that causes harm and knowingly seeking a medical procedure.

Abortion pills—now the most popular method of terminating a pregnancy in the United States—are also a target of Republican-dominated legislatures.

Several states including Texas have moved to ban prescribing the drugs via telemedicine and sending them by mail to people’s homes. Many others are looking to implement similar bans in the wake of the Biden administration’s move to loosen restrictions on the pills.

Anti-abortion-rights activists claim they can’t eliminate all abortions without deterring travel across state lines. They blame pro-choice advocates who are raising money to help people terminate a pregnancy in another state. 

“You have a very aggressive industry working on helping people circumvent pro-life laws,” said Kristi Hamrick with Students for Life of America, which has chapters lobbying for restrictions in all 50 states. “So the conversation in Missouri and other locations is in direct response to that.” 

In post-Roe America, a woman’s cell phone can also become her legal undoing.

Digital period tracking apps could be used against them. As a result, many experts advise removing them from cell phones.

More than 100 million women use period tracking applications. They help predict the date of the next period, the ovulation period, and track the signs of premenstrual syndrome. Dozens of applications are available. 

And if you want to talk about abortion online in Texas, remember: Doing so on Facebook or Twitter could hurt you. 

Texas residents could find themselves in legal hot water for sharing a Facebook or Twitter post on how to get an abortion or holding an online fundraiser for someone seeking one.

Thus Texans, who have long prided themselves on their independence from authority, have become a state filled with informers hoping to get rich quick by informing on their fellow citizens.