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OSCEOLA, Iowa -- In what the Texas governor calls a "transformation," Rick Perry on Tuesday said that he has reversed his acceptance of abortion in some severe circumstances, saying that he now opposes the procedure even in cases of rape and incest.
Perry said the change came after seeing the "Gift of Life" film produced by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He told an audience of Iowans at Clark Electric Co-op in Osceola that he was moved by the story of a woman who introduced the film during a screening earlier this month in Des Moines.
"She said, 'I am the product of rape.' And she said 'my life has worth,'" Perry said of his exchange with the woman. "It was a powerful moment."
The Texas governor made the statement in response to a question from Joshua Verwers, a pastor at Full Faith Christian Center in Chariton, who noted that Perry had recently signed a stringent Personhood USA pledge that urges signatories to oppose abortion "without exception and without compromise."
Candidates Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have also signed the pledge.
Verwers said after the event that he was initially skeptical of Perry's flip on the position but that the governor's answer was "too perfect" and "sincere" to have come from anywhere but Perry's own heart.
"I do believe it was a sincere answer and that he has converted his position and that he would support personhood," the pastor told reporters.
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It would be better if all the Republican presidential candidates pasted a copy of Islam's Sharia Law to their foreheads so that everyone knows where they're coming from. They're religious extremists and their desire is to turn the U.S. into a combined theocracy/oligarchy. They're a danger to anyone who cherishes freedom of choice, freedom from religious persecution and freedom from religious intolerance. They seem to have a craving for the Christian crusades of the past.
How come the conservative republicans are scientifically so ignorant and impractical? They are dragging our country backwards. Very shameful. 'Progress' and 'change' are words that are not in their dictionary.
Simply because the Republicans use religion to gain votes. To think that they actually believe this nonsense, is ridiculous. To trust a politician, GOP or DEM, is simply throwing your money away on carnival tricks.
these bums will say and do anything to be president but to bad because it will be Obama in 2012 ,he well be reelected . there is no one to beat him regardless of how many times these bums will change there beliefs and promises they will not win.
No one has the right to tell a woman she must carry a pregnancy! Period! I don't care what you or Perry think about abortion! It is not your right to decide for me! If you are worried about what God thinks, worry for yourself! Women are not slaves, women are not game pieces for political gains. No one has the right to stop a woman from terminating a pregnancy she does not want to carry! Making abortion illegal will only put women at risk everywhere! They will have to go back into the back alley into unsafe and dangerous situations that made the right to have a legal abortion in the first place! If men could get pregnant, this would not even be an issue! Religion should have nothing to do with a medical decision between a woman and her doctor. It is not up to anyone else to decide! What makes it anyones business but the woman, her doctor and her own beliefs. Are any of you going to adopt and take care of the millions of unwanted babies that will come about from such stupidity? And don't say well just don't have sex, or take the pill, the first is ridiculous and the right wing in this country is trying to make it harder to get birth control too! All of you who say you don't care what the circumstances are that you don't believe in abortion, don't have one! But don't tell me or anyone else what to do!
Anti-abortion lunatics won't be happy until our country becomes a third world nation; poor, uneducated, and overrun with millions of starving babies that should not have been born in the first place. And rapists will get to reproduce at will while all females are destined to be baby making slaves. The problem with anti-abortionists is that they don't care nor think about consequences.
God damn! The next thing you know, Perry will be so pro-life, he'll be against the death penalty.
It's a damn good thing the fright rights are anti-gay; Otherwise Perry would be offering B.J.'s to every evangelist and skinhead at Texas Stadium on pay-per-view.
Catering to these sorry retards with their guns and their 'extended' families in tow has got to have even Dubbyah wondering if he got that 'axis of evil' thing all wrong.
Let each woman decide for herself. Men should stay out of it.
And quit trying to cut Planned Parenthood. Also work on getting folks to be more responsible. A lot of abortions wouldn't be necessary if people took some simple precautions.
I am whole-heartedly pro-choice, but this "men should stay out of it" is complete tripe unless you care to exempt them from child support.
uh. . . I'm not with that guy ^
Mrdifficult, I'm not sure what you mean. I was referring to men telling women what to do with their bodies. If a man doesn't want a child, use a condom or abstain. Otherwise you're responsible for the child also.
Willie White-4490576
God made man to rule and guide women. It is our responsibility to protect them from bad choices. Liberals and the liberal media don't want you to know that.This is God's country and its high time we take it back.
You can move to Iran any time you want, they believe that there, not here in the USA.
Since there is NO SUCH THING as immaculate conception, every child has a father who should have every bit as much say in an abortion (barring rapists, etc.) If a woman doesn't want to share that right, SHE also has the option of birth control. Many women like to play the 'it's my body' card right up until it's child support time.
I suppose you gotta call a draw in the kids favor though, huh?
You raise a valid point Mrdifficult. If a woman didn't want to have a child, she should have used birth control or abstained. It's a difficult situation to balance however because there is no middle ground. If the man wants the child and the woman doesn't, one person isn't going to get their way. There isn't any way to give both sides the right to choose. Since it's the woman who bears the burden of carrying and delivering the child, and the risks, I believe her decision should be paramount.
To the guy who said this: "If a woman didn't want to have a child, she should have used birth control or abstained." Did it ever occur to you that a rapist does not stop to ask a woman if he should put on a condom first??!?!?
Rape is a different issue. I'm only discussing two consenting adults.
The only problem with the theory is that birth control can and has failed. Now, admittedly that is relatively low on the statistic screen as opposed to non-use of birth control. Case in point, however, my friend's mother had a tubal ligation (her tubes tied) after her third child..supposed to be the same as sterilization yes?. Well, she had two more children afterwards. Oops.....
Ag99:
Life began 3.5 billion years ago and has continued ever since. Human life began 50 to 100 thousand years ago and has continued unabated.
Are you saying that the change from two human haploid life forms to one human diploid life form is *THAT* special? So special that a woman cannot have the parasite that may threaten her health and future removed?
BrianB:
Estimates of abortion rate before Roe v. Wade and todays abortion rate are pretty much the same.
we need a new occupant here in austin, tx.... the only way to get rid of ricky is to send him to 1600 pennsylvania ave...
What, ulong pare-2293580???? And have the entire nation suffer under his...um......so-called "leadership"? Keep the dimwit in Texas, please.
plz vote for perry and get him out of our state....plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I take it you live in Baghdad.
It's truly amazing that legal abortion is still being debated in this day and age....
Since Roe v. Wade - which has not been read by most people arguing about it - we've had five Republican presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush. All have been against abortion. All have promised they were going to "overturn Roe." In ore than three decades, none of them have done it. The Republicans make abortion an issue, run on it, get elected and then life goes on.
Why? Because the alternative to Roe is putting women in prison. The Republicans will deny this but think about it: What are they going to do? Hand out tickets? Give women fines?
The only solution to abortion is to attack the conditions that make it attractive in the first place. Women need to know they won't lose their jobs - or their place in the pecking order - for having a pregnancy. They need to know that childcare will be there, if they can't afford it. They need to know that healthcare will be there, if they can't afford it. They need to know that child support will be pursued - automatically - and that accordion payments (where the father lets support slack until the eve of the next hearing) won't be tolerated.
The fact that there are now seven billion people on this planet is a testament to how many women are willing to give birth, even under the worst of circumstances. Given the physical and ethical difficulties involved in even ending a pregnancy, it's insulting when some Johny Come Lately (like Rick Perry) comes onto the scene, ready to second-guess doctors and their patients in order to garner votes.
As someone once noted, if the government has the right to prohibit abortion, it must also have the right to order it. As an American, I may get my yo yo's from China, but I certainly wouldn't want to get my rights from there.
I keep asking whenever the press covers this loser--why do we care what Perry thinks or believes or how his ideas change or don't? He's just a country hick with hubris, a stupid neanderthal with the vocabulary of a seventh grader, a man for whom moral discourse is limited to "duh, I didn't know that." The man is completely lacking in grace; even Herman Cain, as full of himself as he was, could see the writing on the wall.
GOVERNOR PERRY--YOUR CANDIDACY IS OVER, KAPUT, DONE, FRIED, LOST; ALL YOU CAN DO NOW IS EMBARRASS YOURSELF FURTHER. YOUR CANDIDACY STARTED GOING DOWNHILL WHEN YOU FIRST SPOKE. GET LOST, BEGONE, GO AWAY, GET OUT OF DODGE, AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, SHUT UP. READING YOUR STATEMENTS IS LIKE LISTENING TO NAIL SCRATCHING ON A BLACKBOARD.
GO BACK TO TEXAS, WHERE YOU'RE APPARENTLY APPRECIATED FOR SOME UNFATHOMABLE REASON.
Rick is the first Aggie ever elected governor in Texas. Perry only got in because Dubya moved back East. There are apparently some very cogent reasons for this business of no Aggies in the governor's office. If you'll remember, when Dubya was around he was referred to as the smart one. Keep voting Republican in Texas and you'll just get more of the same.
It's sad his mother didn't abort him prior to birth, would have saved us the desire, almost need to abort him now.
Gotta love both sides of the press not reporting on the only guy looking to make serious changes, Ron Paul.
Instead, the machine will work to get Romney v Obama, and it will be politics as usual. Money to the corporations and banks, while everyone wastes their time arguing about gay rights, abortion, illegals, and gun control.
So, if a woman is raped - even brutally raped - the answer is to arrest the woman if she terminates the pregnancy? How compassionate! It's a good thing our politicians aren't up for sale to the highest bidder.
As someone who supports abortion, I've always wondered something about the reasoning of those who oppose abortion, except in cases involving rape, incest, or the mother's life being at stake. Maybe someone can explain it to me.
I can understand making an exception to being opposed to abortion in case the mother's life is at stake. That can be explained as trading one "life" for another.
What I can't understand are those who say that abortion is murder, yet they are willing to make exceptions in cases involving rape or incest. Why is it okay to "murder" THAT particular fetus? Is it an evil little fetus? Does anybody remember the 1974 movie "It's Alive"?
texas colonias >>> ricky's base... take it easy on our gov, y'all... por favor... (^_^)
I wonder if he would apply this new stand on abortions if it was his daughter who was raped, let's say by an insane undocumented immigrant. Would he force her to have this child or would that just apply to other women? Would he imprison raped women who want or have an illegal abortion? Would he really treat his daughter as a criminal. Does this man really think anything through as to the effects on real people?
Bill: They are! It's called the SCOTUS when they said corporations are people.
Spend a ton of UN-documented donation money from the right, and all they can come up with is this?
I hope the GPS Crossroads, Koch Bros., US Commerce, and the like, are pulling out their hair as they see what they backed. Especially the 2 turds from the same dog..... Norquist and Rove.
This issue can never be resolved while so-called "opposing" sides are engaged in two entirely different arguments. One side argues that humans, no matter what age, have a fundamental right to live. Duh. Okay. Nobody with a heart would disagree. The other side argues that the government has no right to essentially enslave a citizen for any period of time in order to force them to function as an incubator for the state. Duh. Okay. Nobody with any understanding of the constitution can disagree. The solution is obvious. If any pregnant woman, at any time, from conception to full term, no longer wishes to serve as incubator, she must be allowed to deliver the fetus either through regular labor or by c-section (at which point her parental rights to the child would also be severed). If the fetus is old enough that it can survive without medical intervention, that's great; either give the child to its father or put it up for adoption. If the fetus is old enough to survive but requires medical intervention to keep it alive, then by all means intervene; the father (if he retains his parental rights) or the state (if the child becomes a ward of the state) must pay for such medical treatments to keep the child alive. If the fetus is so early in its development that it cannot survive outside of the womb, even with medical intervention, then the child dies; this is effectively an abortion without any unnecessary mutilation of the fetus.
The pissante is a total failure and a lunchbox to boot. Boy did Texas blow it with this transgender. WTF
So, yes to the death penalty, but no to abortion. Apparently there's loads of wiggle room in all that "thou shalt not" mumbo jumbo.
Honestly, would any of you truly accept never having had existed? Life is a gift, it's the sacrifice of a parent to take care of that gift.If the parent has it removed like some disease, then what would we call ourselves? infestations?.... We weren't brought to life to have pessimistic views and to degrade our existence, but to guard it, cherish it, accept it.... If you say you have the right to "choose:, what exactly are you choosing? The death of an innocent child? rape is bad, no doubt about that, but life is not and should be treated with respect and love... If a mother really does not want her child, she can give the child up for adoption... if you are pro-abortion, imagine that your mom was pro-abortion and never had you, then what would you think? NOTHING! because you would not have been born in the first place. THINK PEOPLE! THINK!
You are brainswashed by the most evil cult and con of all... organized religion. I hope you are deprogrammed before you have wasted your entire life.
Actually, Ancient, Not one of us would have had any trouble accepting it if we had never existed.
YOU think! It's not like if our mothers had decided to have an abortion, we would be sitting there going, oh no, I don't exist, how horrible! So yes, I accept as right that my mother should have had the prerogative to choose not to bring me into existence. Appeal to interests arguments are for losers.
Since you are so into sacrificing for others, how do you square that with your idea that your mother should have been forced by the law to carry and bear you? Your mother does you a favor, so you feel you owe the universe, which you repay by telling your mother that she was obligated to do you a favor?
Are you going to carry your argument to its logical conclusion and say that we as children only lived because someone provided us food, so we have to send all our savings to starving kids in Africa?
She also may have had a miscarriage and you never would've been born. Look up the statistics...50%!!! 50%!! of the pregnancies end up in miscarriages!!! What about that? You may have also died after birth from all sorts of complications ranging from infections in the hospital.
Of course life is precious...but don't think that that allows society to deem a woman a walking baby mill because life is precious
stay out of my uterus, and i'll stay out of yours. there are situations that are no one's business but the woman involved, and people need to respect that. you may abhor abortion, and that's your right, but you don't get to inflict your opinions on me. i maintain that every pro-life zealot needs to get their butt down to Child Services and adopt a baby right now--no matter what color it is, or what kind of challenges it may face. until you are willing to adopt and assume care of these children you supposedly speak for, you don't get my ear or my respect.
If you want people to "stay out of your uterus" then you are fine...once you allow someone into your uterus then you are responsible for what you create....rape is such a small percentage of abortions that it should be a totally seperate discussion to abortion as a whole. Abortion is killing a baby.....if someone kills a pregnant woman they can ( and should be) charged with the death of 2 people. There is no good reason for tearing apart a living human baby limb by limb with a vacume hose.
They are taking responsibility by getting an abortion. A fetus is not a "living human baby." It is a mass of cells. It doesn't have thoughts or feelings. It is not conscious. It does not sense the world. It's brain is unformed and cannot process information about the world in any meaningful sense.
You are also inconsistent. If you really, truly believe that abortion is murder and a fetus's rights override the mother's sovereignty over her own body, then why make an exception for rape?