HB 15, a.k.a., the Mandatory Sonogram Bill is Approved

Texas Returns to a Slave State

by Peter Stern

House Bill 15 (HB 15) a.k.a. the Mandatory Sonogram Bill was approved by the Texas House and Senate and will now be sent to Governor Rick Perry, who no doubt will sign the bill into law. The bill becomes a law that requires all women wanting an abortion to first view a sonogram. It ignores the rights of all women and overrides individual rights outlined in the U.S. and Texas constitutions.

With the approval of this anti-individual rights bill by the legislature and the governor, it is proof that elected officials are abusing their power. More and more the people are becoming slaves to the State and to special interests.

An interesting question: Exactly how will the brilliant legislature’s sonogram bill be enforced?

Will doctors strap pregnant women opting to have an abortion down into a chair, put their heads in a helmet vise, pry their eyes open with toothpicks and force them to gaze at the sonogram?

What an ignorant and arrogant bill on all levels: intelligently and fiscally irresponsible, an affront on individual rights and a supreme waste of tax dollars. If ever a bill highlights the power of special interests on our legislature, this bill could be the poster example for all future special interest proposals. It is an anti-individual rights, sexist bill and it sets the precedence for the legislature to continue to overstep its authority. It is an unconstitutional bill that has become law in the glorious state of Texas.

Is this really what we have legislators for? With so many truly urgent issues that continue to plague hardworking and hardly working Texans, why is it that the focus remains on issues that legislators have no constitutional right to interpret and determine?

Next, legislators will determine what we may eat and drink for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They will tell us what cars we may buy and drive. They will vote on when we must go to sleep at night and when to awaken in the morning and what toothpaste to use when brushing our teeth. Where will abusive and irresponsible state authority end?

It should disturb all of us that our legislators are so far removed from the reality of what their jobs are as our representatives. It is a small wonder why we are such a mess at the national, state and local levels and that we are consistently being exploited politically, economically and socially. We are living in a legislative Wild West and we desperately need to reign-in elected officials.

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