Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

I Am Tired of Apologizing for Texas Politicians

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Thursday, March 10, 2011


Really, I didn't vote for any of these right wing nutjobs. No, I lie. I voted for one, because she hadn't shown herself to be one until this term, and seemed better than the alternative on the ballot. For my sins, I apologize.

We're facing a budget shortfall of $27 billion (give or take, it depends on the source and recent tax revenue figures. Nevertheless, in a state that requires a balanced budget it's a truckload of money), and what does our governor put on the fast track? Voter ID and pre-abortion sonograms. Yes, both measures look poised to pass.

A woman seeking an abortion after a certain point in her pregnancy has to get a sonogram so the physician can tell the age and position of the fetus. That's medically necessary. But the folks down in Austin want to expand that so a mother would have to hear a description and listen to the heartbeat. The Senate version (unlikely to pass as is) has exceptions for rape and incest. So a teenager who has been raped by a relative or a woman in an abusive relationship has to undergo the pain of a sonogram (if she's not far enough along, a normal pelvic sonogram isn't enough. She has to have one that's placed ... there) and endure a description. A couple faced with the difficult decision of ending a pregnancy so the mother can live is faced with the same process.

And in the very next breath our Legislature wants to cut contraceptive and OB-GYN care for poor women.

Dammit, dammit, dammit. Don't they get that cutting those costs now means we taxpayers are going to have to support MORE ER visits when women suffer complications? We'll have to support MORE children who were born with problems because their mothers couldn't get prenatal care? How many cases of cervical cancer will go on until it's too late?

But cut their Emerging Technology slush fund, and all you-know-what will break loose.

Hey, I get that we're in a budget crunch. So is practically every middle class family in this state. But Do Not make those cuts on solely the backs of the children and the poor while your fat cat lobbyists get their money. Cuts across the board, yes. But we didn't vote you in to force your morality on us.

ETA: I've toned down my language a bit. Apologies to anyone who might have been offended. (No, no one has complained.)

Tags: Politics

Filed under: Politics            

 

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