Texas liberals shamefully protest Perry's measures to safeguard women's health

you keep on saying that, but the stark reality is that where we will be in 50 years (if not much earlier) may well involve genetic screening and engineering of babies, if you're following biotech, and sequencing trends.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/elbenson/sci-fi-religion-and-silicon-valleys-quest-for-higher-learnin

Genetic sequencing is defying Moore's law. The age of viability: not so much. It hasn't really budged since 1973, to be perfectly honest.

I don't like abortions, but I think legislating them out of existence is the laziest and least effective way to deal with a very complex and multifaceted situation. I also do not think technology and the future will give much consolation to those on the "pro-life" side who have such a black and white stance on the policy issues surrounding such a complex matter...they are going to be facing severe, and complex challenges to their notions of ethics, and human nature within a century or so, if not earlier.

(ex: what will the definition of human life become if humanity achieves smarter-than-human artificial intelligence? A tipping point that will become likely in 50-100 years)

 

The first complete genetic sequencing of a human was completed in 13 years on 2003, at a cost of $3.8 billion.

Now it can be completed in one day, at a cost of $1,000 per genome.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/techono...cing-is-now-improving-faster-than-moores-law/

I wouldn't bet on technology's exponential curve when it comes to the unborn, other than the fact that they and almost all human beings will probably have their genomes sequenced in 50-100 years, if not earlier.

this will of course, throw another angle into the debate, which I don't think is particularly savory for those who like to debate on the "pro-life", "murdering fetuses is so bad, so bad, so bad" camp: namely that humanity will finally know who is cursed for suffering---

It will be that angle that emerges first, I would think, given the trend lines.

 

btw, if any of you all want to contribute to the dark, dark future:

http://phylo.cs.mcgill.ca/

 

I love owning you.

 

And I love laughing at your pathetic claims of "owning."

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

All I know is we'll still kick ass. This comes from my studious viewings of Star Trek and Terminator movies.

 

And I'll continue to assume you are unable to ask an honest question until you actually ask one.

 

Unlikely. This is just wishful people thinking. The computer will go Genghis Khan on our asses.

 

I am completely able to ask any honest question you ask, but you are still avoiding asking one. There is about a .01% chance that you could scare me in any way, shape or form, but keep deluding yourself into believing I'm "afraid." Delusion is all you seem to have these days.

 

Rick Perry, safeguarding women's health.

2 more Texas clinics close amid new abortion law

http://news.yahoo.com/2-more-texas-clinics-close-amid-abortion-law-204803310.html

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The last abortion clinic in the vast, impoverished Rio Grande Valley closed Thursday, along with the sole remaining clinic in the 400-mile stretch between Houston and the Louisiana border, posing a tall obstacle to women seeking to end pregnancies across a wide swath of the nation's second-largest state.

The closures in McAllen and Beaumont bring to 19 the number of clinics that have shut down since Texas lawmakers adopted tough new abortion restrictions last summer. Twenty-four clinics remain to serve a population of 26 million women, and more closures could happen after additional restrictions take effect later this year.

Lawmakers required all abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, all abortions to take place in a surgical facility and all women seeking abortion-inducing medications to make four clinical visits. Those rules made it impossible for the clinics in Beaumont and McAllen to stay open, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health.

Anti-abortion lawmakers said the regulations are necessary to protect women's health, but abortion-rights groups have sued the state claiming the restrictions are medically unnecessary and intended to shut down all Texas clinics that offer abortion services.

"Closing our clinics hurts us. But more importantly, it hurts the communities we have served," Miller said during a news conference Thursday. "We have done everything possible to keep our clinics open, but we are simply unable to survive."

The Whole Woman's Health clinics in Beaumont and McAllen had been open since 1973, when abortion was made legal by the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision.

The closest abortion clinic to Beaumont is in Houston. And for women in the Rio Grande Valley, the nearest clinics will be in Corpus Christi and San Antonio, a journey that means passing through immigration checkpoints that require U.S. identification or visas.

Paula Saldana, a women's health care educator in McAllen, said poor women in the valley relied on the clinic.

"When women come up to me and they are in desperate circumstances and they ask where they can go, I will not have a place to send them," she said.

Although groups are raising money to help pay travel costs for women who need abortions, it is still difficult for them to take time away from family and work, Saldana added.

The admitting privilege requirement has become a favored tool for anti-abortion lawmakers across the country to close clinics. In Mississippi, a federal judge has blocked enforcement of a similar requirement because it would shut down the state's last clinic. Alabama passed such a requirement last year, and Oklahoma lawmakers are considering a similar measure.

Most doctors do not have or need admitting privileges, and hospitals usually only grant them to doctors who routinely have patients in need of hospital care. The Texas Hospital Association opposed the requirement, saying admitting privileges were not necessary to provide women emergency care from abortion complications.

The law, which also bans abortions after 20 weeks, was the subject of the largest protests seen at the state Capitol in a generation last summer.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat, gained national attention for a 13-hour filibuster that temporarily stopped the law. Gov. Rick Perry immediately called the Legislature back into special session and Republican lawmakers easily passed it.

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Miller, Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinic operators, saying that the law has no purpose but to shut down clinics. The center won in district court, but the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stopped enforcement of the ruling and is considering an appeal by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who argues the law is constitutional.

Davis and Abbott are now running against each other to replace Perry, who is not seeking another term.

Miller said that part of the problem was finding doctors with admitting privileges to work with her clinics because of threats or intimidation by anti-abortion groups. Whole Woman's Health also operates clinics in Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth and two outside of Texas.

"These medical professionals who know us and our work could have helped us keep our clinics open, yet they have remained silent," she said. "We ask those doctors who would not step up for us: Where will you send your patients now?"

 

I thought when I moved back to Texas I would be done with theocrats.

 

Regardless, the Supreme Court probably will have the last word on the restrictions. The court's four liberal justices already have indicated they are inclined to hear an appeal.

Five votes constitute a majority on the nine-justice court, but it takes only four to grant full review of a lower court ruling.

 

Some 19 clinics have shut down since, leaving 24 still open to serve a population of 26 million Texans. More closures could happen after the additional restrictions are in place.

A clear victory for women's health. Nicely done clown show.

 

Despite the fact that Texas women and children have among the highest uninsured rates in the country, the rest of the nation, nay, the world is extremely impressed by the conservative concern for them.

 

A victory would be for you to actually live your signature.