I am heavily invested in the politics of Perry, Governor of the Lone Star State, Texas, purportedly a staunch proponent of less government in our lives. I didn’t vote for him but he has my tax money in his hands. The voter turnout for the last State and local elections was pitiful so I suppose those elected feel they are serving the will of the people. We, the people, therefore have no-one to blame but ourselves but we can still be outraged.
Until the Reagan presidency Texas had been a blue state, Democratic, for the previous hundred years. In the past thirty years the shift right has been dramatic, as it has in many of the southern states. Bear in mind two Republican presidents got their stabiliser wheels in Texas politics – Bush, George H.W. and Bush, George W. both now safely back in Texas.
But a misunderstanding appears to have occurred between Texans on the street and Texans in the State Capitol into what is deemed ‘emergency’ legislation, meaning the issue is to be passed within 60 days. With our State leaders facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall, slating a ‘voter ID bill’ and a ‘sonogram bill’ do not, to this taxpayer, seem emergencies.
Voter ID is self-explanatory. The Sonogram Bill, Senate Bill 16, is not and is a proposed legislation that has irked a great many ordinary people in this State, both Republican and Democrat.
It is a bill, which instead of lessening government’s interference in our lives, overreaches into our very bodies and minds. This legislation, which passed the Senate 21-10 on Thursday afternoon very much along party lines, mandates that any woman having already made the agonising decision to have an abortion must undergo a sonogram at least two hours before the procedure. The already distressed woman is permitted to turn her head away but will have to listen to the heartbeat and a detailed description of organs and limbs. The exception to the latter only applies if the pregnancy resulted from a crime, if a minor or if the fetus has an irreversible condition or abnormality.
Governor Perry was delighted with the quick consideration given this bill and hopes for a speedy House action. This politically motivated invasion is on top of already legislated information the pregnant woman receives before the procedure, along with counselling.
I fully support women being given information about other possible options available, only then can she make an informed decision, but how dare a mere politician come between a doctor and patient in such an intrusive manner and over such a personal issue.
How dare those same politicians then have the temerity to drastically cut from their budget funds for vaccines, funds for pre-kindergarten care and funds for education as a whole? Not to mention funds for mental health. Where will the safety net be for the child born to the woman emotionally coerced over her choice?
If this bill isn’t government infringing on our lives I don’t know what is.
Maybe these politicians, proud to be Texan, need to expand their views a little; maybe they need not be so beholden to the financiers behind their elections.
The great State of Texas, a proudly independent state, is being manipulated by a State Government lead by Governor Perry who repeatedly tells us that less government is better for the economy and for us, the people.
What then gives him the right to intrude in our wombs?
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