CNN:
A Texas legislator has proposed that pregnant women considering abortion be offered $500 not to end their pregnancies.
Republican State Sen. Dan Patrick, who also is a conservative radio talk show host, said Friday the money might persuade the women to go ahead and have babies, then give them up for adoption.
He said during a legislative conference in New Braunfels, 45 miles south of Austin, there were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year.
"If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those women, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq," Patrick said.
This is wrong on so many levels, I hardly know where to start. The really tactless and creepy allusion to our fallen soldiers in Iraq aside, there are HUGE, sweeping assumptions being made by (of course) a man about a decision that few, if any, women make lightly. And as someone whose family has both biological and adopted children, I know all too well the dangers in the foster program for unwanted children. I'd like to know how many of these babies Dan Patrick has or is planning on adopting.
