Gov. Rick Perry Endorses Unconstitutional Legislation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 18, 2008 Contact: Sara Cleveland, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, 512-462-1661
GOV. RICK PERRY ENDORSES UNCONSTITUTIONAL LEGISLATION Austin, Texas – Today Governor Rick Perry held a press conference lending his support to controversial legislation that has failed each of the previous five times it has been filed in the Texas Legislature and has been found unconstitutional by the Federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals when filed in other states. “There are few bills that do less to help prevent unintended pregnancies, the only cause of abortions, than HB 109” , said Sara Cleveland Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas. “Once again Governor Rick Perry has put politics ahead of good health care policy, by doing the bidding of special interest groups in hopes of garnering their support in the Republican Primary in March of 2010. If the purpose of this bill is to simply support adoption agencies and families with adopted children, then a direct increase in such funding would be a more effective strategy. ” HB 109 would create a specialty license plate, the revenues of which would be used to fund unlicensed and unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Centers who provide biased, often medically inaccurate information through volunteers who have no medical training. These CPCs do not offer the recommended prenatal medical care. What they do is provide a funding stream for right wing groups to continue to deliver their divisive message and prevent women from accessing appropriate medical care. Additionally the legislation explicitly prohibits organizations that offer a full range of services, counseling or referral, from receiving the funds. If “Choose Life” license plates are authorized, there is no end to the other types of political plates the state may be asked to issue State government should not sanction political messages on license plates - specialty plates are an important source of revenue for causes like cancer research and environmental protection. They shouldn’t be used for political slogans.While the writers of this bill may have the best of intentions, the politically charged message and the direction of revenue created by these license plates does not serve the best interests of Texans and their families. # # #
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