Gov. Perry makes perfectly clear what he's after: 'a world without abortion'

Rick Perry is determined to keep his generalship in the war on women. Rick Perry, who has hinted he might run for a fourth term for Texas governor or seek the Presidency again in 2016, has been one of the generals in the war on women. He's signed several laws making abortion more difficult, forcing women seeking the procedure to undergo sonograms and defunding Planned Parenthood. He hopes to sign more this year when the Texas legislature imitates other states that have found various means to "regulate" (read: close) clinics and whatever else the twisted forced-birther crowd can come up with to tighten the noose around reproductive rights. It's been obvious for some time what he wants to achieve, but he erased all doubt Tuesday:

"To be clear, my goal, and the goal of many of those joining me here today, is to make abortion, at any stage, a thing of the past," Perry said at a press conference organized by Texas Right to Life. "While Roe v. Wade prevents us from taking that step, it does allow states to do some things to protect life if they can show there is a compelling state interest. I don't think there is any issue that better fits the definition of 'compelling state interest' than preventing the suffering of our state's unborn."

Coming up in 2013, the legislature will seek to cut the number of weeks of gestation during which an abortion is legal to 20, far short of "viability," but alleged to be the stage at which a fetus can feel pain, a point of view researchers have deemed bogus. A similar law has been passed in nine other states. It was the brainchild of Americans United for Life, which put together a model law with the Orwellian name of the Women's Health Defense Act.

A bill that Anne Merlan of the Dallas Observer says Perry could put his signature to is getting the backing of another forced-birther group, the Texas Alliance for Life. Republican Rep. Dan Patrick, a Houston-area talk-show radio host, is sponsoring the bill that "would require doctors to personally administer both of the drugs used in medication abortions" in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Consequences?  A woman seeking an abortion would have to make three visits to a doctor's office'for state-ordered pre-abortion "counseling," then 24 hours later for the first pill and 48 hours after that for a second pill. The Food and Drug Administration declared the abortion pill safe in 1996. It has also said the pill can be safely taken at home. But that makes no never-mind to Rick Perry or the Texas legislature.

That proposed law, as Merlan points out, would hurt low-income most since they are least able to take off work and afford childcare so they can get to their appointments.

Bebe Anderson, director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called it exactly right Tuesday, saying: "And now the governor has made it clear that Texas women will once again be public enemy number one in 2013." Another Republican obviously eager to enhance the gender gap the GOP has so diligently created over the years.