Gov. Perry makes perfectly clear what he's after: 'a world without abortion'

[Playinghardball]

Rick Perry, who has hinted he might run for a fourth term for Texas governor or seek the Presidency again in 2016, has been one of the generals in the war on women. He's signed several laws making abortion more difficult, forcing women seeking the procedure to undergo sonograms and defunding Planned Parenthood. He hopes to sign more this year when the Texas legislature imitates other states that have found various means to "regulate" (read: close) clinics and whatever else the twisted forced-birther crowd can come up with to tighten the noose around reproductive rights. It's been obvious for some time what he wants to achieve, but he erased all doubt Tuesday:

To be clear, my goal, and the goal of many of those joining me here today, is to make abortion, at any stage, a thing of the past," Perry said at a press conference organized by Texas Right to Life. "While Roe v. Wade prevents us from taking that step, it does allow states to do some things to protect life if they can show there is a compelling state interest. I don’t think there is any issue that better fits the definition of 'compelling state interest' than preventing the suffering of our state’s unborn."

Coming up in 2013, the legislature will seek to cut the number of weeks of gestation during which an abortion is legal to 20, far short of "viability," but alleged to be the stage at which a fetus can feel pain, a point of view researchers have deemed bogus. A similar law has been passed in nine other states. It was the brainchild of Americans United for Life, which put together a model law with the Orwellian name of the Women's Health Defense Act.

A bill that Anne Merlan of the Dallas Observer says Perry could put his signature to is getting the backing of another forced-birther group, the Texas Alliance for Life. Republican Rep. Dan Patrick, a Houston-area talk-show radio host, is sponsoring the bill that "would require doctors to personally administer both of the drugs used in medication abortions" in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Consequences? A women seeking an abortion would have to make three visits to a doctor's office—for state-ordered pre-abortion "counseling," then 24 hours later for the first pill and 48 hours after that for a second pill. The Food and Drug Administration declared the abortion pill safe in 1996. It has also said the pill can be safely taken at home. But that makes no never-mind to Rick Perry or the Texas legislature.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/11/1169059/-Gov-Perry-makes-perfectly-clear-what-he-s-after-a-world-without-abortion

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. "The suffering of our state's unborn..."

what about the suffering of the women forced to carry those pregnancies? Did you ever consider the people who are already here?

Damn him to hell.

[Rex]

10. Rick Perry could easily walk past the zombie hordes

without ever worrying about them eating his brain.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Indeed! Since he most likely doesn't have one! n/t

[Rex]

12. Indeed!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. Nice to see you tonight, my dear Rex...

[Rex]

16. Always a great nite when I see you posting!

[Avalux]

2. Rick Perry can kiss my Texas transplant ass and go to hell.

And what does it mean when Tom Delay's attorney thinks Perry should be investigated?

The crux of the matter is the long-running controversy about the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a discretionary-spending source based out of the governor's office. There have been worries for years that both it and the Texas Enterprise Fund have totally failed to produce the jobs promised and required by the terms of the grants. The matter exploded on Sunday, when the Dallas Morning News reported that $16 million went from the fund to firms owned or run by big-time Perry campaign donors.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/07/908246/-Tom-Delay-s-Lawyer-Wants-Investigation-Of-Rick-Perry#

[Rex]

9. Rick Perry is not worthy enough to touch your nan-tucus

nor is he worthy enough to touch my native nan-tucus with those lying devil lips!

[lunasun]

3. All his rich friends will just go across the border if they want an abortion- shhh! do not tell

anyone your sin it stays here across the border.

His middle class supporters will use a credit card to go across the border if they want an abortion.
Shh! This never "happened" do not tell

This will hurt most people in poverty that can not afford to go across the border if they want an abortion.
They will be the ones who can not afford all the costs and time off to make all those visits even now for the pills and "counseling" before even just getting the after pill .

Black market for pill may appear on the TX streets but that has safety issues women should not have to encounter in the USA

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. Womb Envy.

I am so sick of these asshats.

[OldDem2012]

5. Just curious, but what does the Texas Right to Life organization plan to do....

...with all of the unwanted babies who will be born in Texas because of these extremist laws? Will he and his fellow travelers be adopting them, or will they be forgotten as they get farmed into Texas' child services system?

For folks who don't want a lot of government regulation they sure seem determined to legislate everything that happens in the bedroom.

[dballance]

6. I believe I read an article recently where some ass hat state

Like TX or AZ is already discussing reversing the laws they passed shutting down access for poor women to contraceptives. It seems that despite their nonpartisan state employees telling them this would be a bad idea they passed these laws anyway. Now they are seeing the use of public assistance going up rapidly since poor women are now having more children due to the fact they can't get birth control any longer.

Apparently they forgot it's something of a zero-sum game. Taking money out of one pot based on partisan politics often leads to a different pot needing more money. So it becomes a transfer of funds, not a surplus and not a real political win over the long term. I'm willing to bet they've increased abortions rather than curbed them.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Freely available birth control is the first step.

Goal is unreachable without it. Chew on that, Gubn'r Goodhair.

[Mariana]

18. A lot of these loons

are promoting the idea that birth control IS abortion, that they're one and the same. I don't know if Perry holds that view, but it's becoming more common among the anti-choice crowd.

[Rex]

8. Repuke Texans hate themselves so much that

they wanted something even worser than GWB in office!

Rick Perry is like the Bird of Everlasting Poop flying over our heads all day long, every day.

[SheilaT]

14. If you don't believe in abortion,

then don't have one.

And don't tell anyone else what to do.

Please also take a close look at what conditions were like in, I think it was Romania, where abortions were not available, nor was decent birth control for any number of years. Women did wind up carrying unwanted, unplanned pregnancies to term. And then abandoned those babies. Who wound up in horrific orphanages, with almost no human contact whatsoever.

I recall reading about this, and seeing stuff on TV back in the late '80s. Is this what Rick Perry wants? Sadly, people like him live in a fantasy world, in which women only have abortions because of a momentary lapse of good judgment. If that moment is blocked, then they'll come to their senses, have the baby, and all will be well. In reality, women have ALWAYS had to deal with unwanted/unplanned pregnancies. When legal and safe abortion is not available, they'll resort to illegal, unsafe abortions. Or infanticide in some way.

Pro choice is the ultimate pro life position.

[LTR]

15. It's all bluster

Republicans will never get rid of their #1 wedge issue. If they wanted to get rid of abortion, they've had that opportunity for years.

[standingtall]

17. I agree

because once all their social wedge issues are gone they have to compete on economic policies alone, and they can't win that argument, and they know it.