This story from
Mother Jones isn't exactly surprising:
On Wednesday, Perry became the sixth candidate to sign an anti-abortion pledge from the Susan B. Anthony List that commits him to a set of radical anti-abortion measures if elected president. The Dallas Morning-News has the nuts and bolts:
The pledge has four parts:
- a promise only to pick federal judges who adhere to the strict "original meaning of the Constitution,"
- to "select only pro-life appointees" for attorney general and assorted posts at the National Institutes of Health, Justice Department and Department of Health & Human Services.
- to defund Planned Parenthood and any other organization that performs or funds abortions and to end all taxpayer funding of abortion, domestically or overseas and
- to sign into law the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," to ban abortion based on the premise that fetuses can feel pain.
Most of the other candidates who are angling for the support of the crazy wing of the crazy party have already signed the pledge, of course: Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Thaddeus McCotter, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Mitt Romney—whose own health care plan covers abortion—and Jon Huntsman, who is apparently seeking the support of the Nader wing of the crazy party, haven't signed it.
The pledge is absurd, of course. The same people who want to amend the constitution to mandate balanced budgets and ban anyone who is gay, Muslim or left-handed are promising to only appoint judges who think the Constitution, as originally written, should never be altered or interpreted.
The vow to end taxpayer funding of abortion is perhaps even more absurd, considering that there is already a ban on taxpayer-funded abortion.
And then there's the promise to ban abortion based on the premise debunked myth that fetuses can feel pain.
Perry already has an impressive record in Texas of restricting women's health care every which way he can, going so far as to even call an emergency session of the state legislature earlier this year in order to pass yet another anti-choice bill.
So his anti-woman vigilance really shouldn't be in doubt. But I guess signing the pledge is just another requirement for Republican candidates to prove just how crazy they are. So thank god Perry's got that box checked.