Re: Texas Abortion Bill That Would Require Sonogram Before Procedure Poised To Become Law
AUSTIN, Tex (Reuters) – Women seeking an abortion would have to first get an ultrasound under a measure approved on Thursday by the Texas House of Representatives.
The proposal, the first significant bill considered by the House this year, was designated by Republican Governor Rick Perry as an emergency priority. A similar measure has already been approved by the state Senate.
Women would have to get an ultrasound between 24 and 72 hours before an abortion, the bill says. They would view the sonogram, hear an explanation of the image and listen to the heartbeat, if it is audible.
They want to break a woman’s heart after the rapist broke her nose, or worse. They want to rub a young teen’s pregnancy in her face after she has already had a traumatic emotional experience with her boyfriend and her parents. They are adding insult to injury, literally, in order to promote conservative ideology. They have no respect for the mother, or her life.
One interesting consideration that no one but me is considering right now is China and its massive overpopulation problem. The Chinese authorities force families to NOT have children under penalty of imprisonment. I think the U.S. is the only country in the world that rewards large families with tax breaks. Looking forward to 2050, Texas could face some very awkward backpedaling when they realize that overcrowding, not abortion is the real problem. According to the Pew Research Center, the population of the U.S. will reach 438 million by the year 2050 most of the gain being Hispanic immigrants:
If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005, and 82% of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their U.S.-born descendants, according to new projections developed by the Pew Research Center.
These figures are a little dated, sure, but they emphasize a problem that will be impossible to deal with once it is here. What are the right-wing nutjobs going to do then? Shoot them all?
The balancing voice in the Texas legislature, the Democrats, have been largely ignored since the sweep of 2010, but they make a good point. If the pro-life crowd wants to force a woman to raise a child she doesn’t want, then those same right-wingers should help pay for the raising. From the source article:
Democrats tried unsuccessfully to add a series of amendments to the bill. One of those said that if the woman decided not to go through with the abortion, the state would have to pay for the college education for the child. Another, which also would have applied to cases in which the woman decided not to have the abortion, would have allowed women to get a court order to require the father of the child to get a vasectomy.
We all know the vasectomy thing won’t fly, but still, the father of the child, aka the rapist, should be forced to do something, right? After he gets out of prison, maybe? Anyway, the Texas Governor and Legislature says “nuts” to all that and full speed ahead! More births, please, and pass the potatoes (if there are any left)!

Tea Party Caucus Takes Shape In Senate, Sort of…
Re: Tea Party Caucus Takes Shape In Senate, The Huffington Post, Elyse Siegel
Three. Three guys, Paul, DeMint, and Lee, making some back-room pact does not a caucus make. But! The great thing here is that we may see some fragmentation in the Republican Party. Finally. I knew that they could not hold the wall together forever.
The first rift that jumps right out at you here is the statement: “Republicans in the Senate have already made a pledge to end earmarks and fight for a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” said Paul…”
Not true. Republicans in the Senate are actually pretty closed lip on the subject. This means that the majority of them actually want earmarks to continue. In legal terms, silence is not acceptance. But, I’ll bet the business/corporate lobby/interests in the red states are screaming. Earmarks mean improvements to commerce. They know it, we all know it and welcome it, even those of us on the far left.
Well, I’ve just got to say, three cheers for Rand Paul! The more the Right Wing© divides, the better.