Rick Perry Continues His Culture War Campaign, Signs Anti-Abortion Pledge
It’s official. There is no doubt in my mind that Rick Perry will be this election’s top culture war candidate. I first started to believe it when he announced “The Response”, a prayer rally, which turned out to be step one in a voter mobilization drive . That feeling was bolstered as his ties to religious extremists came into the light, and again when his Dominionist beliefs were confirmed. Then Perry passed former Iowa-frontrunner Michele Bachmann in the primary race, according to Public Policy Polling. Now, in my mind, Perry has taken the final step on the road to becoming a culture war candidate.
From The Hill:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday signed an anti-abortion-rights group’s presidential pledge, making him the seventh Republican presidential candidate to do so.
Perry’s decision strengthens his hand with conservative voters while drawing attention to front-runner Mitt Romney’s decision not to sign on. Candidates Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson have also so far refused to sign the pledge and are under pressure to do so.
“I not only pledge to protect unborn life, but have a record of doing so in Texas,” Perry said in a statement. “I have signed legislation requiring parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion, and have long advocated adoption as an alternative to abortion in order to protect unborn children.”
The petition, called the Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge, was created by the Susan B. Anthony List. The SBA-List is an organization “dedicated to electing candidates and pursuing policies that will reduce and ultimately end abortion.” The organization topped the list of Pro-Life PAC donors for the 2008 and 2010 election cycles.
The SBA-List pledge is intended to bind signees to four principles:
• Nominating conservatives to the federal bench;
• Selecting “only pro-life appointees” to relevant executive-branch positions, in particular the head of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services;
• Fighting for legislation that would permanently end all taxpayer funding of abortion, both domestically and internationally, and defund Planned Parenthood and all other contractors and recipients of federal funds whose affiliates perform or fund abortions; and
• Advancing federal legislation — the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act — that would ban abortions after 20 weeks from fertilization.
Let the culture wars continue.
