Rick Perry

I wrote Rick Perry a letter in December 2008 in which I pointed out the Texas Penal Code's definition of "individual" and asked him why abortion can still be considered legal in Texas. I never got a response. I wrote him again in December 2009 and detailed to him how the current Texas laws which keep abortion legal are not in compliance with the 14th Amendment and are therefore unconstitutional. I never got a response. So I am writing him again, a much longer letter this time, and I will enclose my suggestions for legislation (Click here and scroll down to the images). This (or something like it since I may make a few more edits) will be going out tomorrow. I'll also carry one to the Texas Republican Convention (where I'll be a delegate) just in case I get close enough to him to hand deliver it... We are never going to get anywhere unless we make a loud noise and rock the boat...

May 27, 2010



Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428

RE: Texas law and abortion



Dear Governor Perry:

When future generations of Texans look back at your tenure as Governor of Texas, what will they see as your legacy? Will they see someone who only gave lip service to standing up to Obama’s socialist agenda but, in the end, failed to stop the massive encroachment of the federal government? Or will they see someone who stood firm against the forces of tyranny and fought for the inalienable right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of ALL Texans?

Planned Parenthood recently opened what can only be described as an abortion “supercenter” in the Houston area, a project begun with the anticipation of abortion coverage under Obama’s proposed socialized medicine. The idea that our tax dollars will be going to pay for the murder of the unborn, the most innocent and vulnerable of human beings, is abhorrent to millions of Texans. In fact, Thomas Jefferson once said, “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

My question to you, Governor Perry, is: what are you prepared to do to stop Obama’s socialist agenda, an agenda that completely devalues individual human life? Are you prepared to take drastic and decisive steps to put a stop to the legalized murder of innocent human beings in Texas? On January 14, 2010, I sat in the balcony of the Murchison Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of North Texas, and I heard you say, in your debate with Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina, that you “always come down on the side of life.” Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is?

The State of Texas already has in place the foundation for ending legalized abortion. According to Tex. Penal Code §1.07, a “Person” “means an individual, corporation, or association." (Tex. Penal Code §1.07.38) An "individual" (the term used in the definition of "Person") "means a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth." (Tex. Penal Code §1.07.26)

Chapter 19 of the Texas Penal Code deals with the crimes of criminal homicide. Tex. Penal Code §19.02 plainly states that a person commits the offense of murder if he "intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual" (emphasis added).

The definition of individual was put into the Code by the 2003 Prenatal Protection Act, designed to protect pregnant women from violent acts that might result in the harm of their unborn children. Governor Perry, you signed this act into law which was an important step in protecting the rights of infants in the womb. Unfortunately, that same act also created Tex. Penal Code §19.06, which states, in part, that:

This chapter [the chapter defining criminal homicide] does not apply to the death of an unborn child if the conduct charged is:
(1) conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child;
(2) a lawful medical procedure performed by a physician or other licensed health care provider with the requisite consent, if the death of the unborn child was the intended result of the procedure;

Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution says, in part, that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The current Texas code, specifically §19.06, is in clear violation of the last two clauses of Amendment Fourteen as it allows for the deprivation of life without due process of law, and it denies these certain persons "within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Even the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision claimed that: “If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [Fourteenth] Amendment." As of 2003, Texas law now establishes this suggestion of personhood, so, according to the Roe v. Wade decision, the right to life of unborn children MUST be guaranteed in accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment.

Over the past 37 years, Texas has passed all kinds of regulations on abortion in an attempt to limit the number of abortions. What these regulations have done, because they all basically end with some form of …and then you can kill the baby, is to keep abortion legal. Now that Texas has defined womb children as persons, the State needs to eliminate the supposedly pro-life regulations which protect abortion as a legal medical procedure. Tex. Penal Code §19.06, in its current form, must be removed. All statutes which regulate abortion (i.e. keep abortion legal) must also be removed. Since unborn children are now defined, by law, as persons, and since abortion, by definition, kills unborn children, abortion must then be considered homicide, subject to prosecution just like any other homicide.

Unfortunately, there are those in the “pro-life” community who operate under fear. Texas Alliance for Life, an organization which strongly endorsed your candidacy for governor, is one of those. They have, thus far, declined to promote any legislation which would grant unborn children full personhood status and all the rights associated with being a person (the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness). An examination of their Facebook page demonstrates how they are operating out of fear. On March 1, 2010, a Facebook user named Aeron Mills posted the following comment:

Debra Medina "Texas law defines life as
beginning at fertilization - taking of life as murder (except where
we are double minded and allow mothers and doctors to abort) Fix
that and you've addressed the problem in the law - requiring an
ultrasound doesn't stop the abortion. It's just more incrementalism.
Texas should revisit our own law - not allow exceptions, ban
abortion and let the court battles begin. The government has a duty
to protect innocent life - our state law says that begins at
fertilization"

Texas Alliance for Life posted the following response via the comments field:

This is the bill that Gov. Perry signed into law in 2003, the Prenatal Protection Act. Unfortunately, changing it as suggested above would render it unconstitutional in the eyes of the US Supreme Court. The problem is that the majority of the Court supports Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand. We do not have the votes to overturn Roe to allow Texas to fully protect unborn babies and their mothers from abortion.

I would point out to Texas Alliance for Life that because the Texas Penal Code now defines unborn children as persons, the current laws which allow abortion are already unconstitutional (as demonstrated in the paragraphs above).

The Pro-life movement has spent the past 37 years trying to get Roe v. Wade overturned. Before Obama’s term as president began, seven of the nine Supreme Court Justices had been appointed by supposedly pro-life Republican presidents, and yet, Roe v. Wade has remained firmly entrenched in the minds of lawmakers everywhere. The magnitude of the genocide going on around us calls for immediate and decisive action. The number of abortions in Texas is about to skyrocket thanks to the new federal healthcare law and the aggressive marketing push by Planned Parenthood and organizations like it. We at Texas Personhood demand that our state officials act without fear in putting a stop to government sanctioned murder. We demand justice for the children whose only “crime” is that they haven’t yet passed through a birth canal. We demand that you call a special session of the Texas Legislature for the expressed purpose of creating criminal penalties for those who continue to murder babies in Texas. I have enclosed a framework of what such legislation might look like.

Governor Perry, you swore in your oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State. Your taking of this oath demands that you take immediate and decisive steps to bring Texas law into compliance with what the Constitution of the United States actually says and not with what certain members of the judicial branch of government make up out of thin air and say is "constitutional." We at Texas Personhood implore you to take drastic and immediate steps to end the murder of innocent children that is occurring in Texas.


Sincerely,



Dan Hawkins
Texas Personhood
http://texaspersonhood.blogspot.com

Enclosure


Cc: Texas Alliance for Life
2026 Guadalupe Street
Austin, TX 78705