As most Texans know, Rick Perry doesn't have any real political beliefs -- unless those beliefs can make him some money or get him elected to political office. He has a long history of giving tax breaks and grants to corporations, who turn around and make large donations to his campaign fund (or give him a sweetheart deal on some land that he can turn around and sell for a massive profit). This has allowed him to become a millionaire, even though he has never held any job outside of government.But there is one issue that Perry is doubling down on, because he believes he can ride that issue into the White House -- outlawing abortion. Now Perry is not real bright. He ignores the fact that a significant majority of Americans support the current Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which allows abortions in the first trimester of a pregnancy and imposes restrictions after that trimester. All he can see is that outlawing abortion and denying women the ability to control their own bodies is very popular with his teabagger base voters, and he thinks if he beats that drum hard enough he could get the GOP presidential nomination.
In the last legislative session, he supported and signed into law a measure that forces women seeking abortions in Texas to submit to a vaginal sonigram. This is nothing short of state-mandated rape, since it involves violating a woman's vaginal area by inserting a probe against her will. Any citizen that did this would receive a long and well-deserved prison sentence, but Perry and his teabagger cohorts think it is just fine for the state to require this to happen.
Perry also cut off all state funds going to Planned Parenthood -- even though Planned Parenthood never used state funds for abortions (and only 3% of Planned Parenthood's business involved abortions). But Perry didn't care. He knew it would play well to his teabagger base, and that's all he cares about. That resulted in the federal government cutting off funds going to Texas for women's healthcare, and now the next legislature must somehow make up those millions of dollars (or leave poor Texas women without a place to get contraception, breast cancer exams, or basic healthcare.
Now in the new session of the legislature (which starts in January 2013), Perry is pushing a "fetal pain" bill. This is the new popular way the GOP is using to attack abortion. The thesis is that a fetus can feel pain as early as 20 weeks, and Perry and his cohorts would ban all abortions at 20 weeks or after. Of course there is no scientific evidence that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks, or even later. Anyone who says they can is just lying to push their own political agenda (and that is exactly what Perry is doing).
The truth is that Rick Perry just wants to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. He knows he can't make a frontal attack on Roe vs. Wade, so he is chipping away at the edges of current law. He admits as much by saying:
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.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. . .Again, the ideal world is a world without abortion.Until then, however, we will continue to pass laws to ensure abortions are as rare as possible under existing law.
But Perry and all the other fetus fetishists are laboring under a false assumption -- that abortion can be eliminated. The fact is though, there have always been abortions -- and always will be. They can be reduced in number through good sex education and the correct use of contraceptives (which Perry and his teabagger buddies oppose), but outlawing abortions will have little effect on whether they continue to happen or not. If outlawed, they will simply move underground again (like they were before Roe vs. Wade), and many women will die because a safe and legal abortion was not available to them.
And the really crazy part is that while Perry loves the fetus, he doesn't have much use for the child after it is born. Like many of his fellow Republicans, he is happy to use the power of the state to attempt to force a woman to have a child. But once that child is born, he opposes the state providing health insurance, food, clothing, housing, or other things the state could provide to raise that child to be a healthy and contributing member of society. He's even against properly funding schools or establishing stricter standards for schools, so the child can get a decent education.
All of you readers outside Texas should take this post as a warning, because Perry is going to try and run for president again -- and this fool would make George W. Bush look like a great president (and a bleeding-heart liberal). If you thought Bush was bad (and he was the worst president of modern times), then just wait until you get Rick Perry (a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, corporatist, corrupt politician with absolutely no moral or ethical center).
