Fist Fights and Abortion
Two male Republicans came this close to getting into a fist fight on the Texas House floor over an abortion bill. If the sergeant at arms staff hadn’t stop it, Republicans Rep. Jonathan Stickland and Republican Rep. Byron Cook could have sold pay-per-view tickets.
On an abortion bill. Two males. Doesn’t that seem odd to anybody?
Here’s what the fight was about:
SB575 is a bill about “elective” abortions. It would require women who want to be covered for abortions under their health insurance to purchase supplemental plans. It didn’t look like it was going to get out of committee.
Jonathan Stickland, who is one kinky guy, decided to add an amendment on some other bill about roads or some damn thing. His amendment would force a house vote on an amendment “to prohibit abortions on the basis of fetal abnormalities.”
Yeah, that’s some crap. A woman would be required to carry a non-viable fetus until it died and was expelled from her body naturally. Yeah, that crap. The crap that kills women.
So anyway, Stickland agreed to pull the amendment in exchange for a promise from the Republican leadership that SB575 would get reported out of committee.
Although Cook kept his word, three Republican women on the Calendars Committee — Reps. Sarah Davis, Debbie Riddle and Patricia Harless — backed out of supporting the bill at the last minute and sided with the Democrats, killing the measure with a 7-7 vote.
Strickland got screwed by Republican women. But you can’t hit women so he decided to hit Cook instead.
The result?
But in the end, Stickland’s temper tantrum worked.
The Calendars Committee reconvened after the House session and voted to move SB575 forward by a vote of 8-0. Two Republicans and all of the Democrats were marked as absent. Republican Rep. Debbie Riddle swung her vote in support of the bill, but it was not immediately clear why she had changed her mind.
Debbie Riddle is kinda nuts. You’ve read about her here before. You can call her office and fuss up a storm about her caving to a temper tantrum worthy of a two year old. 281-257-4222 . Be nice. Don’t cuss. But don’t back down.
It is with a kind of sick curiousity that I want to know why Stickland thinks abortions on the basis of fetal abnormality should be prohibited.
1I assume Stickland is the one in the photo showing off his gun and his beer gut, both of them considerably larger than his brain, and especially the sense and compassion lobes. Hell, the bullets in the gun are bigger than those lobes.
Anybody who would prohibit abortions for fetal abnormalities is either claiming decision power on things he (usually he) knows absolutely nothing about, or he is so devoid of compassion that he should not be making decisions for anybody on anything.
2What a manly pose! A totally posed caricature self assuredness
3Oh, how their tune would change if men got pregnant. Sigh.
4That amendment is NOT germane to the bill. I wish the Lege would follow the rules…
5Believers in weird science!
6Having lived 2 doors down from one of those damned baby-killing abortion doctors in Denver back over ten years ago, and having watched the white males show up on our cul de sac every Saturday morning for months with their “fetus on a stick” signs, nothing about this dust up at the Lege surprises me. She wasn’t performing abortions at the Planned Parenthood Clinic… she was doing PAP’s, and teaching a class on birth control options every Wednesday afternoon, instead of playing golf with the male OB/GYN’s in her practice.
Reminds me of that old bumper sticker… If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.
7God that picture of Stickland even makes me hate beige pants.
8I loathe the GOP-especially the males.
9Pistol Packin’ Pervert!
10I always miss the good stuff.
11Anne, GOP men are loathsome, but I have to admit to a high degree of confusion as to the GOP women who don’t stand their ground against the men who would interfere in the doctor/patient relationship.
😀 I’m married, but I know there are other available Democratic men, so the GOP ladies do not have to settle for Tea Bag Taliban nuts.
12What a better world it would be if people like Strickland fought 1/10th as hard to make sure that every child born got good health care and a solid education.
13Back in the day men used to fight to protect/preserve women’s honor.
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