The Daily Background

This happened last week so you might have already heard about it, but it bares bringing up even now. In Texas, a Republican state senator is proposing that women be paid $500 not to have abortions.

As Nicole of Crooks and Liars says, this is wrong on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start. First of all the idea that taxpayer’s money would be spent trying to dissuade a citizen from doing legal activity is troubling in and of itself.

And this idea is coming from one of these fiscal conservatives who thinks that government spending is never the answer to anything. Well, who really cares about hypocrisy when morals are at stake anyways, right?

Then there’s also the twisted perception of women that this Republican lawmaker has that makes him assume that reasonable people would change their mind about a very personal decision if you only pay them a little bit of money. This guy thinks women who are in difficult situations are greedy enough to change their mind if the government just gives them some money.

And there’s even more. Patrick suggests that the women wouldn’t have to keep the babies when they’re born, and instead could offer them for adoption for the $500 reward. Some people are saying this would break long-standing laws against buying and selling babies.

What’s worse, this guy, Dan Patrick (who also happens to be a conservative radio personality) actually has the audacity to compare abortions of fetuses with American soldiers dying in Iraq. “If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of [the women who have abortions in Texas every year], that’s 3,000 lives,” Patrick said, defending his idea. “That’s almost as many people as we’ve lost in Iraq.”

It turns out this guy, who was only elected last November, tried to overturn Roe v Wade by writing a new law in his state just days after being sworn in. Apparently that didn’t work, so he tried this scheme. It has yet to come up for a vote in the Texas State Senate.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog