Houston, we have a problem.

Just about a year ago I posted about the Texas republican party platform that had just been finalized & voted on. It goes something like this:

[T]he Texas GOP seeks to end the state's lottery, which provides millions in funding to public education; restrict citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are citizens; end federal sponsorship of pre-kindergarten schools; impose a jail sentence on any illegal immigrant in the state; shut down all day-labor centers; cut off all bilingual education after a student's fourth year in a U.S. public school; legalize corporal punishment in public schools; mandate that evolution and global warming be "taught as challengeable scientific theory"; and demand that Congress evict the United Nations from U.S. soil and end American membership in the global body.

AND

We also believe that no homosexual or any individual convicted of child abuse or molestation should have the right to custody or adoption of a minor child, and that visitation with minor children by such persons should be prohibited but if ordered by the court limited to supervised periods.

Yep. The Texas GOP right there. So, anyway, just today that same GOP held itself a signing ceremony in Houston. Gov. Rick Perry (R-Eprehensible) already signed the bill last week but he decided he'd do it again to some pomp & circumstance...and evangelism:

Surrounded by cheering anti-abortion activists, Gov. Rick Perry joined lawmakers who led the passage of a bill requiring a sonogram for women seeking abortions and ceremonially signed the legislation Tuesday.

"Texas is a state that respects and defends life," Perry said, declaring that tens of thousands of abortions are performed in Texas each year. "Every one one of these lives lost is a tragedy."

[...]

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who has tried to pass the bill in previous sessions, said the timing wasn't right before, but that God was finally ready for passage.

"This was the time," he said. Patrick said if only 20 percent of the women viewing the sonograms decide against an abortion, 10,000 to 15,000 lives will be saved each year.

Women can decline to view the sonogram image and hear the fetal heartbeat, but, with some exceptions, they still must hear a description of the image.

Before the bill signing Patrick called it the best bill in the country, and afterward said, "Praise the Lord."

"The good news is through the blood of Jesus Christ he forgives, and women who have aborted children need to know that message," Patrick said.

According to the law, women will not only be forced into the ultrasound process but most will have to wait 24 hours AFTER having one to be able to go ahead with her abortion. There is a caveat for women who live more than 100 miles away--they "only" have to wait two hours.

I can't really pick out what is more disgusting and inappropriate (apart from the bill itself, that is): Perry signing a law AGAIN to show off for and appease the bloodlust party crowd of anti-abortion activists or Rep. Patrick's patronizing theocratic spewing. It's all appalling, intrusive, controlling bullshit dressed up in theocratic religious fervor shrieking about "saving babies"--and it's SOP for many state legislators these days.



[NOTE: This is NOT a thread to mock the whole state of Texas or all of its inhabitants. Don't go there, mmmkay?]