This is my first post and it will be a doosy. I am sick and tired about hearing about how Rick Perry is more "pro-life" than Kay Bailey Hutchison. Rick Perry has been claiming to be the most "pro-life" Governor in the history of Texas. Does anyone know what Perry has done for the pro-life movement? Anyone? Well, I can tell you. He put forth a plan (that failed in the Texas Legislature) that gives Texans the option to get a license plate on their car that says "Choose Life". How pathetic is that? Just think, a girl is headed to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion and sees a license plate and she turns to her boyfriend and says, "You know what, I'm going to listen to that license plate." Come on Texas, it's absurd!
Ok, let's dissect this together. The Texas Governor or any Governor of ANY state can have NO impact on the abortion debate. Abortion is a federal issue that has been decided by the Supreme Court. So, what would happen with the abortion issue if Kay or Rick was Governor. The answer is nothing would happen. NOTHING! The Governor can do NOTHING about abortion! It would be like me running for City Council and you wanting to know my position on the Iraq War. A City Councilman can do nothing about the Iraq War!
What should we be asking Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison about? Maybe things they can actually HAVE an effect on. Like state education, college tuition, health care, toll roads, the Trans Texas Corridor, property taxes, and what leadership they can provide in Texas.
Just to reinforce my point, Kay is in a position right now where she could potentially make an impact on abortion, the United States Senate. Why don't we take a look at her record courtesy of ontheissues.org (great web site).
Voted YES on defining unborn child as eligible for SCHIP. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on barring HHS grants to organizations that perform abortions. (Oct 2007)
Voted YES on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
Voted YES on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
Voted YES on banning human cloning. (Feb 1998)
Rated 7% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)
Let's see, that looks pretty pro-life to me! In fact, she has done WAY more than Rick Perry ever has on defending the lives of the unborn. So, wise up Texas. Vote on issues that MATTER in a Governor's race.
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Very good post! I love reading your POV on issues. Can't wait to read more. Gig 'em!
ReplyDeleteGood info!!! You did your homework. Go Kay. I like her even though she was a t-sip cheerleader ha ha.
ReplyDeleteWhat a savory passion you have for the political process! It made me want to move to Texas just to go and vote for Ms. Hutchinson to become the next governor.
ReplyDeleteI do have one qualm with your candidates voting record and it has to do with rejecting the $100 million dollars to reduce teenage pregnancy through education and contraceptives. I will explain why I am VEHEMENTLY opposed to her position on this issue.
First of all, I had ten students get pregnant in the last year. Most of them did not have abortions, but rather proudly walked the school with their expanding bellies. I talked to many of them and uncovered their amazing lack of understanding about what was ahead for them and even their ignorance about what they could have done differently to avoid the situation they are in.
A new study recently revealed that 40% of Americans are born out of wedlock.
I also recently spoke to a woman who works for a group that is fighting teen pregnancy. She has been actively working for the last twelve years to address this issue. There is almost no research to support that an abstinence-curriculum reduces teenage pregnancy. Obama recently signed legislation allowing federal funding for any research-based approach to the issue, even if that approach is a research-based method of using the abstinence-only education. This is a MAJOR victory for her organization. Now, with that done, they can move onto the next step of their program - to add in *relationship* education into the sex-ed curriculum. This will help students understand what a healthy relationship is and why it might benefit them. Teenagers are much more likely to develop healthy relationships and avoid early pregnancy under this approach.
Now, how can I as a religious woman who believes in abstinence-only as a doctrine of God, support the idea of teaching students how to use contraceptives? I'm not Catholic. End of story. What do I mean by this? I mean that there is nothing wrong with using contraceptives and people that intend to wait until they are married will benefit just as much from contraceptive instruction as there friends (the majority of teenagers) who start sleeping around starting in Middle School. Teaching contraceptives is NOT teaching students to have premarital sex, it is teaching them to be responsible and to plan for the future.
Teenagers need to know all they can about safe sex. They need to be well-informed on how to not get pregnant so abortion is not even an issue. I would much rather have a student get educated about contraceptives and have sex earlier as a result, than to have that student wait a little longer, have sex anyways, get pregnant, and abort the child. Murder is before adultery in my book of worst sins. And by the way a research-based approach to preventing teenage-pregnancy does not result in earlier sex. Abstinence education does.
In summary - let's teach contraceptives, let's teach about safe sex, let's teach about what it means to have a strong, healthy relationship, let's teach about the value of raising a child in a two-parent household. All those things are proven to produce results.
Until then, I will continue to cry over every student that comes into my classroom showing off an ultra-sound, getting reamed for having an abortion, trying to hide their growing belly, or coming to me and crying about how they slipped up, got drunk, and got pregnant. I will continue to cry over the dozens upon dozens of my students that are standard-level kids set up to fail in life because their parents were teenagers when they were born. They can overcome, but its not easy, and not many do.
Interesting stuff, Jessica. Although, that wasn't really the topic of the blog, but that is a take on the issue that I haven't thought of before.
ReplyDeleteActually, Jessica was talking about the subject, specifically the candidate's voting record on abortion, if you look at the beginning of her post. She had an issue with the candidate's voting record when it comes to rejecting the $100 million to reduce teen pregnancy through education about contaceptives. I think that a solely abstinance-based program in the school system does not work. I remember going to high school and seeing multiple classmates of mine having their first, even second children, at 16 and 17 years old. OBVIOUSLY, abstinance is not working. Teens are not going to stop having sex, we just need to teach them about safe sex, condoms, birth control, all the resources available to them to prevent pregnancy. I honestly believe that the reason I am not in a similar situation as my former classmates, if not the same, is because I was taught about these things.
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about safe sex/condoms. That isn't really the issue with the blog. I shouldn't have even put that in there. I was talking about pro-life votes and that came up. The safe sex thing is another debate
ReplyDeleteTalking about abortion is the same topic, in my opinion, as talking about safe sex. Abortion is *often* used as a form of birth control. I just wanted to point out that although your candidate seems to have a great pro-life record, there may be things about that record that people should be concerned about. Hopefully this blog is open enough to take another point of view on our candidate's positions :)
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