# Fuck you, Texas Republicans **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 26, 2013, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942 "2013-06-26T06:21:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/281 "2013-07-02T12:11:04Z")
For the last time, Madame, we’re talking about how I’m about to break your kneecaps. If you don’t stop crying because I just punched you in the ovaries, we’re never going to get anywhere… ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/282 "2013-07-02T12:30:44Z")
Ah, [this just in from Texas.](http://twitchy.com/2013/07/01/shameful-kids-recruited-to-hold-pro-choice-sign-featuring-wire-hanger-pic/) Kids looking to be about 2 or 3 and 5 years old holding up signs saying “No to SB5” with a wire hanger on them. I’m pro-choice, but these parents now have stolen the spotlight for The Biggest Assholes in Texas. Unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![Karrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71c47a/32.png) [@Karrius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karrius)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/283 "2013-07-02T13:36:47Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Ah, [this just in from Texas.](http://twitchy.com/2013/07/01/shameful-kids-recruited-to-hold-pro-choice-sign-featuring-wire-hanger-pic/) Kids looking to be about 2 or 3 and 5 years old holding up signs saying “No to SB5” with a wire hanger on them. I’m pro-choice, but these parents now have stolen the spotlight for The Biggest Assholes in Texas. Unbelievable. I see people from a local church at least once a month with their kids holding up giant poster board signs of super graphic pictures of supposed “aborted fetuses”. But yeah, I can see how that wire coat hanger picture is so bad. So very, very bad. Nice attempt to hijack, by the way. Very typical republican tactics that everyone has come to expect from people like you, who apparently think this non-event makes you a bigger asshole then telling women not to use rape kits to collect DNA evidence against rapists. It’s good to see you have your priorities straight. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/284 "2013-07-02T13:48:41Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Not to take away from the crap that is the bill, but there is a little place north of El Paso known as New Mexico. I am pretty sure there is a clinic no further north than Las Cruces. True enough. And to my understanding, their approach to abortion laws is positively… twenty-first century! Let’s go for a girl in Laredo, then. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/285 "2013-07-02T14:01:31Z")
> [@Karrius](#): > > Nice attempt to hijack, by the way. Very typical republican tactics that everyone has come to expect from people like you, who apparently think this non-event makes you a bigger asshole then telling women not to use rape kits to collect DNA evidence against rapists. It’s good to see you have your priorities straight. It _is_ in pretty poor taste. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/286 "2013-07-02T14:43:37Z")
> [@Karrius](#): > > I see people from a local church at least once a month with their kids holding up giant poster board signs of super graphic pictures of supposed “aborted fetuses”. But yeah, I can see how that wire coat hanger picture is so bad. So very, very bad. > > Nice attempt to hijack, by the way. Very typical republican tactics that everyone has come to expect from people like you, who apparently think this non-event makes you a bigger asshole then telling women not to use rape kits to collect DNA evidence against rapists. It’s good to see you have your priorities straight. Might want to ease up on that crack pipe. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/287 "2013-07-02T14:46:42Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Because that nine months of misery is going to save a human life. It wasn’t misery. It was literally risking my life. My blood pressure was so high during labor I could have easily wound up with pre-eclampsia and then full blown eclampsia which is still to this day hard to treat and can lead to death. I had some of the symptoms but I was lucky and nothing happened to me. Women should not be forced to literally risk their lives because the birth control failed. If you’re going to bring up your wife I’ll bring up my husband. If he could get pregnant, I would never place the lives of any potential children of ours over his. Never. I would never even think of telling him what to do if he had a uterus and could give birth. Given how much I [love my husband,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=571728&highlight=dollar+wedding) the thought is essentially unthinkable. Pro-life men simply don’t value women’s lives. I love my girls so much it almost hurts to think about but I risked everything to have them including my own health and life. I would never dare ask another human being to do that. Men who want to impose such risks on half the human race are sexist scum. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/288 "2013-07-02T14:52:59Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Pro-life men simply don’t value women’s lives. I love my girls so much it almost hurts to think about but I risked everything to have them including my own health and life. I would never dare ask another human being to do that. Men who want to impose such risks on half the human race are sexist scum. Nonsense like this is why we can’t get anywhere on abortion. It’s just as bad as pro-lifers calling women murderers. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/289 "2013-07-02T15:12:16Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Nonsense like this is why we can’t get anywhere on abortion. It’s just as bad as pro-lifers calling women murderers. Well said. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/290 "2013-07-02T15:22:40Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Nonsense like this is why we can’t get anywhere on abortion. It’s just as bad as pro-lifers calling women murderers. It isn’t nonsense. I am sick and fucking tired of hearing smug men call what I went through an inconvenience or mere misery. The anti-abortion pretense that pregnancy is anything but a serious risk to a woman’s health, well being and life is unworthy of anything but serious contempt. We can’t get anywhere on abortion because a significant section of the rotten old men who rule this country refuse to see half the human race as anything but incubators they want to control. The choices on this issue are very simple: legal abortion or illegal abortion. Men who prefer that women be punished with illegal abortions are sexist scum and should be denied the right to be within fifty feet of one. ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/291 "2013-07-02T15:23:20Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Ah, [this just in from Texas.](http://twitchy.com/2013/07/01/shameful-kids-recruited-to-hold-pro-choice-sign-featuring-wire-hanger-pic/) Kids looking to be about 2 or 3 and 5 years old holding up signs saying “No to SB5” with a wire hanger on them. I’m pro-choice, but these parents now have stolen the spotlight for The Biggest Assholes in Texas. Unbelievable. So was it clueless pro choice supporters (Not beyond belief, but I lean towards not likely) or a staged, underhanded photo-op aimed at discrediting the people trying to stop the bill by the anti-choice? ( Since the Texas GOP have shown they’re willing to bend the rules and the truth more than a little to further their goals, I’d deem this more likely.) I don’t view the post as an attempt at hijacking, but without the context of the parents political leanings, it goes in the “Cannot be processed with the available data” bin…" ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/292 "2013-07-02T15:34:13Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > It isn’t nonsense. I am sick and fucking tired of hearing smug men call what I went through an inconvenience or mere misery. The anti-abortion pretense that pregnancy is anything but a serious risk to a woman’s health, well being and life is unworthy of anything but serious contempt. > (snip) > Men who prefer that women be punished with illegal abortions are sexist scum and should be denied the right to be within fifty feet of one. Right on the money Lavender… But I understand foreign language study isn’t mandatory in Texas so most of the GOP never learned to communicate in common sense. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/293 "2013-07-02T15:34:45Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Nonsense like this is why we can’t get anywhere on abortion. It’s just as bad as pro-lifers calling women murderers. It’s an unnecessarily broad and hyperbolic brush, but it’s [hardly without foundation](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10154224/Irelands-inhumane-abortion-law-finally-comes-under-scrutiny.html). Where the approach is to make abortion as difficult as possible, where there are medical issues it’s the pregnant women who face the sometimes-lethal consequences of the legislators’ “moral stance”. And I would argue that, while they’re not all trying the punish women (although some certainly seem to be), they often seem to blithely pass this legislation without consideration for the outcomes (or, worse, with the willingness to blame the victim if something bad does happen). ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/294 "2013-07-02T16:22:53Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > It isn’t nonsense. I am sick and fucking tired of hearing smug men call what I went through an inconvenience or mere misery. The anti-abortion pretense that pregnancy is anything but a serious risk to a woman’s health, well being and life is unworthy of anything but serious contempt. > > We can’t get anywhere on abortion because a significant section of the rotten old men who rule this country refuse to see half the human race as anything but incubators they want to control. The choices on this issue are very simple: legal abortion or illegal abortion. Men who prefer that women be punished with illegal abortions are sexist scum and should be denied the right to be within fifty feet of one. This entire post is worth repeating. Well fucking said. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/295 "2013-07-02T16:37:59Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Men who want to impose such risks on half the human race are sexist scum. And women who are pro-life? This portion of your argument is doomed to failure, since there are plenty of pro-life women. [Norma McCorvey, who was “Jane Roe” in the infamous Roe v. Wade case](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_McCorvey), is now a pro-life activist. [Lila Rose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_Rose) of Live Action, [Dr. Charmaine Yoest](http://www.aul.org/about-aul/charmaine-yoest/) of Americans United for Life, [Marjorie Dannenfelser](http://townhall.com/columnists/marjoriedannenfelser/), President of the Susan B. Anthony List, [Kristan Hawkins](http://studentsforlife.org/kristan-hawkins/), Executive Director of Students for Life… the list goes on. Easily half the participants in the annual [March for Life](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/25/170292683/photos-scenes-from-the-march-for-life) are women – scroll through the photos. This insistence that the pro-life is being unilaterally imposed by men upon women is absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/296 "2013-07-02T17:19:32Z")
I really wish that “pro life” could be reserved for opponents of abortion, capital punishment & war. Our most fervent Texas “pro life” politicians have only recently discovered their strong anti-abortion principals–and are just as eager to keep Texas at the top in capital punishment. These guys are also glad to keep Texas close to the bottom in Education & Medical Care–factors that can affect the welfare of former fetuses… There are [two bills to watch](http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/13731/house-state-affairs-committee-to-meet-tuesday-at-330pm-will-limit-testimony-on-hb2), the House’s HB2 & the Senate’s SB5. Then, there’s SB9, filed by Dan Patrick–he was first, but his will probably be ignored since he’s announced he’s running for Lt Gov. (Will the current Lt Gov run for Governor? Will Rick channel all his energies for another run for the White House? His last one was aborted early…) From [yesterday](http://www.texasobserver.org/the-start-of-an-extra-special-session/): > [@](#): > > The Senate and House met for only 30 minutes. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst confirmed that, like the first special session, he’d decided to do away with the Senate’s two-thirds rule, which requires a two-third’s vote to bring up a bill. That rule would be inconvenient for Republicans, because Democrats control one-third of the chamber and could block the abortion measure. Thanks to Dewhurst, the Senate needs only a simple majority to pass the abortion bill—hence the outrage of the orange-clad crowd outside. Yup, making up the rules as you go along… Perry was supposed to reveal his [presidential plans](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/07/02/the-texas-abortion-battle-could-be-just-what-rick-perry-needs/) on July 1st, but he postponed the announcement because of the special session. > [@](#): > > Rick Perry might well owe Wendy Davis a thank you card one day. > > The pitched battle over abortion law in Texas has thrust the longtime Republican governor back into the center of the political universe with social conservatives squarely in his corner. All in all, it’s not a bad place for him to be right now… > > The protests that have seized the legislature in recent days have given conservatives a reason to rally behind Perry, who is leading the charge to pass the abortion bill. And that could translate to strong support in a Republican primary, the race that matters most in the ruby red state. > > Perry, if nothing else, has been hard to read throughout his career. He ran for reelection in 2010 when some expected him to step aside. And he was a late entrant into the 2012 presidential race even after he repeatedly denied any interest in running. Perry an opportunist? The politician who first ran for Texas Rep as a Democrat–because he lived in a Democratic district? The one who switched parties because the Republicans offered better appointments–not because he had a Saul on the road to Damascus revelation? What does Ted Cruz think? He won the nomination for Senator away from Rick’s favorite–his current Lt Gov–and has positioned himself as Texas’s #1 Republican Nutcase. They sure are in a hurry to grab what they can–are they afraid that Texas is changing? ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/297 "2013-07-02T17:35:20Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > It’s an unnecessarily broad and hyperbolic brush, but it’s [hardly without foundation](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10154224/Irelands-inhumane-abortion-law-finally-comes-under-scrutiny.html). And to a pro-life advocate the charge of “murderer” is hardly without foundation. LavenderBlue automatically writes off any argument from a man who is pro-life. Doesn’t that seem like a road block to you? The problem as I see it is that the foundation of abortion is axiomatic–where one believes “life” to begin is not something that can be proven one way or another–and so we debate the merits on both sides. The people on the edges, though, resort to emotional charges like “murderer” and “women haters” because they have run out of intelligent things to say. To tar all pro-lifers as misogynist or all pro-choicers as murderers is wrong and equally so. We need a Godwin’s Abortion corollary for these arguments. ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/298 "2013-07-02T17:36:51Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > And women who are pro-life? > This insistence that the pro-life is being unilaterally imposed by men upon women is absurd. I don’t think it’s absurd in the least Brick. Trying to cast this as a moral concern equally split between the sexes is erroneous. Trying to cast this as a physical/financial risk equally shared between the sexes is erroneous. What’s the gender of most of the politicians in the Texas State legislature? Without looking, I’d be shocked if it were more than 30% female. Politicians are supposed to represent their constituents, right ? And yet the majority of Texans oppose this bill. So exactly who is the male majority in the legislature representing with this policy push? A 2012 Gallup poll found that men (53%) were more likely than women (46%) to call themselves “pro-life.” To characterize the proportion of males and females on the different sides of this debate as equal is misleading. ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/299 "2013-07-02T17:44:09Z")
From Texas Politics - [http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp\_media/html/leg/features/0304\_01/gender.html](http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/leg/features/0304_01/gender.html) Texas 2013 House Senate Total % Female 20.7% 22.6% 21% ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942/300 "2013-07-02T18:03:48Z")
> [@sylmar](#): > > A 2012 Gallup poll found that men (53%) were more likely than women (46%) to call themselves “pro-life.” > > To characterize the proportion of males and females on the different sides of this debate as equal is misleading. That’s a gap, yes, but hardly a dramatic one. That stat shows nearly half the female population is likely to call themselves pro-life. THAT is the point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-texas-republicans/661942.md?page=16)