Rick Perry Categorizes Abortion as a States' Rights Issue

ABC News ^ | July 27, 2011

[ejdrapes]

Rick Perry Categorizes Abortion as a States' Rights Issue
July 27, 2011 8:32 PM
ABC News' Arlette Saenz (@arlettesaenz) reports:

Despite holding personal pro-life beliefs, Texas Gov. Rick Perry categorized abortion as a states’ rights issue today, saying that if Roe v. Wade was overturned, it should be up to the states to decide the legality of the procedure.

“You either have to believe in the 10th Amendment or you don’t,” Perry told reporters after a bill signing in Houston. “You can’t believe in the 10th Amendment for a few issues and then [for] something that doesn’t suit you say, 'We’d rather not have states decide that.'”

The 10th Amendment reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

[smoothsailing]

Perry has this right. I've been around since well before Roe v. Wade, and back then far more babies survived because almost all states and citizens were appalled by abortion and didn't allow it.

I would guess that most posters on this thread didn't go to the link and read the full article.

The last two paragraphs are instructive and give the reader a sense of Rick Perry's reverance for life....

The National Right to Life Committee responded to Perry’s categorization of abortion as a states’ rights issue in a statement, saying, “Our society has an obligation to enact laws that recognize and protect the smallest members of our human family. Prior to Roe, states had the ability to enact laws that extended full legal protection to unborn children. We look forward to the day when Roe v. Wade is changed, and the states will once again have the ability to pass legislation that fully protects mothers and their unborn children.”

In a win for anti-abortion activists earlier this year, Perry signed a law requiring doctors to conduct a sonogram before performing an abortion, an initiative he deemed an “emergency item” for the 2011 legislative session.

[smoothsailing]

LOL, you beat me by 37 seconds! :)

[Minus_The_Bear]

There are plenty of states like South Dakota who have tried to ban abortion but were opposed by not only Pro-Choice advocates but "conservatives" like you.

Does it bother you that lives could have been saved in a single state?

[RINOs suck]

Sad thing is if Roe was overturned I can’t see many States that would outlaw abortion

I'd guess more than half would. Some states have laws that will automatically outlaw abortion if Roe is overturned. A few years ago, Louisiana passed a law outlawing abortion if Roe was overturned.

[potlatch]

It was funny, when I went to look at my post I saw yours starting out with the same words, lol!

[EternalVigilance]

That is only because personhood had not been adhered to.

[EternalVigilance]

Your support for abortion & Roe v Wade is pretty sick.

Call the orderly and have him up your meds.

[CA Conservative]

I don’t think anyone here is in favor abortion. Just how do you think you can outlaw it, given the current legal and political environment? At the federal level?

Some of us are more concerned with saving every life that we can, and that means limiting or banning abortion wherever possible. However, at this point in time, that battle is being won more frequently at the state level.

You and your strategy of attacking anyone who doesn’t have an “all or nothing” approach hinders the battle against abortion far more than it helps. Fight abortion on every front, but accept as allies those who might also oppose it, but choose to approach it in a different manner, perhaps even incrementally.

[Minus_The_Bear]

Uhh... you're the member of the fringe "AIP" cult.

Wasn't the unabomber a part of that?

[ejdrapes]

Ah, yes, of course Palin is states rights on Abortion too. Now I know why I prefer Bachmann. ;-)

Michele Bachmann on Abortion

BACHMANN: I am 100 percent pro-life. I've given birth to five babies, and I've taken 23 foster children into my home. I believe in the dignity of life from conception until natural death. I believe in the sanctity of human life. Our Declaration of Independence said it's a creator who endowed us with inalienable rights given to us from God, not from government. And the first of those rights is life. And I stand for that right. I stand for the right to life. The very few cases that deal with those exceptions are the very tiniest of fraction of cases, and yet they get all the attention. Where all of the firepower is, is on the genuine issue of taking an innocent human life.

Grant the pre-born equal protection under 14th Amendment.
Bachmann co-sponsored granting the pre-born equal protection under 14th Amendment Bill would implement equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person. The Right to Life Act declares that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being, and defines "human being" to encompass all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization or cloning.

Source: Right to Life Act (H.R.618) 2007-HR618 on Jan 22, 2007

[right way right]

Abortion is murder.

Is murder a state right?

Another Fence riding RINO.

There is Law and there is morality.

Today we need a moral leader.

[ejdrapes]

Provide a quote of when I EVER said Roe V Wade should not be overturned? I’ve never said that. I don’t believe abortion is a states rights issue (because I believe the right to life is granted by God not man) but that doesn’t mean I don’t think Roe should be overturned. Obviously having Roe overturned and sending the issue back to the States is perferable to what we have now. But the taking of human life should not be allowed in any State, period.

[normy]

The Supreme Court already legalized murder nationally. It's called abortion and it's killed over 40 million Americans. If abortion was always a states right, millions would have been saved. This is a smart move and I believe at least half of the states would ban abortion immediately.

[ejdrapes]

And what about natural law? Natural rights are not contingent upon laws or governments. The right to life (born and uborn) is a natural right.

[Minus_The_Bear]

You don't understand what natural law is.

If you did you would support abortion in all 50 states.

[Minus_The_Bear]

wouldn’t

[normy]

Murder is a states right.

Murder is tried at the state level and in some states results in the death penalty for murder. In others it results in a a few years in prison. In some states crimes of passion carry less penalty than pre meditated.

The point is abortion is ruled a Constitutional right as it now sits. Want to stop abortion? Send it to the states and watch half of them ban it.

[Polybius]

So Perry thinks States have the right to decide if murder is legal or not? Sorry Rick that doesn't fly.

So what would you prefer?

To have Roe v. Wade trample the Tenth Amendment, as it did, and dictate that abortion is legal in ALL 50 States or give each State the right to outlaw abortion as the Tenth Amendment requires? (Unless you believe in "penumbras")

Are you one of those people that would deny the State of Texas it's constutional right, under the Tenth Amendment, to make abortion illegal just so that you can brag that you are more anti-abortion than Perry is?

[little jeremiah]

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This is very revealing. So should individual states be allowed to legalize hiring a hit man to murder one's wife or husband or child? If not, why not? If he considers abortion a states' rights issue, he's (a) an idiot and (b) not pro-life. Maybe pandering to some strange group as well - pro-abortion Rs?

[normy]

The Roe case arose out of a Texas law that prohibited legal abortion except to save a woman's life. At that time, most other states had laws similar to the one in Texas. Those laws forced large numbers of women to resort to illegal abortions.

Jane Roe, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, represented all women who wanted abortions but could not get them legally and safely. Henry Wade was the Texas Attorney General who defended the law that made abortions illegal.

After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans’ right to privacy included the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference.