Two days after Texas lawmaker Wendy Davis vaulted into the political spotlight for helping defeat a bill restricting abortion rights by staging an 11-hour-long filibuster, Gov. Rick Perry said it was unfortunate she had not learned that “every life matters,” given that she was the child of a single mother who went on to earn a Harvard law degree.
In a speech to nearly 1,000 delegates at the conference near Dallas, Mr. Perry struck hard at Ms. Davis, 50, asking the crowd, “Who are we to say that the children born in the worst of circumstances can’t grow to live successful lives?”
Then he cited Ms. Davis, as an example, saying she was the daughter of a “single mother. She was
a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate.“It is just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters.”
Ms. Davis released a statement that said Mr. Perry’s statement was “without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds. They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view. Our governor should reflect our Texas values. Sadly, Gov. Perry fails that test.”
How totally patronizing and inappropriate. I have rarely heard any remarks that judgemental. I can’t believe that any person in that room who personally witnessed Perry’s words wasn’t just mortified for him.
Rick Perry is living proof that a$$holes can exist with no other visible means of life support! Remember, this is the same guy who, until he was found out, had a camp called “Niggerhead” with the words painted on a rock at the camp. And Paula Deen got fired??? I don’t know what it is about Texas but the people there keep reelecting this redneck clown who had the audacity to think he could be president.
I wonder if Gov. Perry has remembered which government agencies he would close if he were president.
And yet…he would STILL be more competent than the one we have now.
Cargo, surely you are kidding? Do you want to totally blow your credibility? Rick Perry is a fool. He made a fool of himself during the R primaries and he has done nothing to convince anyone outside the state of Texas otherwise.
Rick Perry – Mansplainer in Chief
“Mansplainer” – a man who explains to a woman how she
should view the meaning of her own life.
Atlantic (6-28-2013)
Excellent Steve. I was going to give you full credit for saying that.
@George S. Harris
Amazing how quickly certain facts are forgotten. Perry was truly an
embarassmnent to himself, his wife and Texas during the primaries.
@Ivan
Very funny Ivan!
@Steve Randolph
Like the “Mansplainer”–I guess that is what we should call all those males in the Virginia legislature that voted for trans-vaginal ultrasounds!
Feel free to have at ’em, George.
I wouldnt vote for any of them in their arrogance.
The problem with that bill is that it would close all abortion clinics. If Perry wants to run for president again, he better think twice before signing this bill.
Unless things change we will have the same problem here in Virginia.
Another serious problem is that often fetal anomolies are confirmed with amniocenecis. That is done at week 16 or later. So, let’s same a woman has a bad amnio that indicates severe fetal problems.
It several days to a week to get results back. If the woman choses to abort, even though she very much wants to carry to term, there really isn’t any time left. Remember that the bill says from fertilization. That really means week 18. Pregnancy is calculated from conception. No one really knows when fertilization is.
So basically, those are the women who will not have abortion as an option unless they go to another state. If that House Bill should pass then they would have to leave the country. I was a child when Sheri Finkbine went to Sweden because she had a fetus with flippers instead of limbs. Have we really reverted to the past that much? I felt she was treated outrageously then, from a child’s point of view. Imagine how I feel now.
I respect people who are pro-life before AND after birth.
Rick Perry doesn’t – when he isn’t “protecting the unborn”,
he is attacking the born — ripping apart an already weak
Texas “safety net” for those in need.
I agree 100% Steve.
He also has signed the execution warrants for over 250 people on death row. Situational ethics?
What many people also fail to understand is that many of us who are pro choice are so politically. We don’t feel we have the right to make these decisions for other women. It has nothing to do with what we would do ourselves. Wendy Davis is a good example of what I am talking about.
We trust women to make their own morally appropriate decisions about deeply personal matters.
Kirsten Powers (pro-choice Democrat) makes a compelling argument against Wendy’s position: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/02/kirsten-powers-i-don-t-stand-with-wendy-davis.html