20 Week Abortion Ban Is Not Extreme

From: The Weekly Standard

The American left loves Western European democracies for their cultural sensibilities and for their policies on everything from crime to health care. One policy area where you won’t hear American liberals cite the European example, though, is abortion.

The reason is simple: Abortion law is far more restrictive in Europe than in the United States. As the table below shows, 16 of 18 countries on the continent limit abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy (with certain exceptions in various countries). The banning of late-term abortions now being considered in the House of Representatives and some American states would seem only civilized to most Europeans.

Not to U.S. liberals, who call “extremism” the attempt by some in Congress to promote a bill banning abortions after 22 weeks. A similar bill in Texas is “a sweeping assault on women’s rights,” in the words of the Nation. Yet even these bills—in the unlikely event they became laws—would be among the most permissive in the Western world. 

Indeed, only Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands would have more permissive laws. Even anti-Catholic France bans abortion at 12 weeks, nearly 3 whole months before the gestational limit in the House bill. By international standards, Republican efforts to ban late abortions are anything but conservative—they are fringe left. 

Source: Phillip B. Levine, Sex and Consequences: Abortion, Public Policy, and the Economics of Fertility (Princeton University Press, 2007), 135-139.

COLT Is Relocating To North Texas

From: CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

A firearms company that makes AR-15 style rifles for the iconic brand Colt, will open a plant in Breckenridge in Stephens County. Oregon company Bold Ideas confirmed the development Friday.

Bold Ideas goes by the name Colt Competition, making high accuracy rifles for competition shooting.

The company has not officially announced the opening, but employment applications are already available at the Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce. A non-specific, help wanted ad appeared in the local newspaper classifieds earlier in the week.

Sources say Colt Competition will move into a large vacant industrial space on the north side of town, previously used by Karsten Homes to manufacture mobile homes.

The move by Colt Competition into Breckenridge comes as the CEO of Colt Manufacturing in Connecticut has said there will soon be few good answers to keep his company in the state. Connecticut passed some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws this week.

It also comes weeks after Governor Rick Perry reportedly sent letters to gun companies, encouraging them to move to Texas. Perry sent a message on Twitter to Colorado company Magpul as recently as March 21, saying “Come on Down to Texas.” The Governor’s office did not confirm Friday if it had sent a recruitment letter to Colt Competition.

Rumors swirled for weeks in Breckenridge that a major gun company was coming. Butch Spencer, who owns E-Z Pawn and Gun, said he figured when he heard the name Colt referenced that someone had just made a mistake.

“I’m tickled to see em get something like that,” he said. “I think that’d be a lot better than a mobile home factory.”

Custom gun and ammunition manufacturer Jim Mitchell said the move has the potential to draw more companies to the state, with a political climate that’s friendly to firearms.

“We’re in line to help em, and do the best we can, and they’ll be of great benefit to the community,” he said. “We’ve already got people going, hey I’m moving to Breckenridge.”

Planned Parenthood: Pre-Abortion Ultrasounds "Abhorrent"

From:LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood has a response to the federal appeals court decision allowing Texas women a chance to see an ultrasound of their baby before an abortion. They call it “abhorrent.”Writing for the court, Chief Judge Edith Jones was frank about the other side’s failure “to demonstrate constitutional flaws with the law,” which requires women to have a sonogram 24 hours before an abortion. Judge Jones said the state has “legitimate interests in protecting the potential life within her.”

Denying her up-to-date medical information,” Jones wrote, “is more of an abuse to her ability to decide than providing the information.

”Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement that the Fifth Circuit ruling “sets an abhorrent precedent” as other states prepared to consider similar laws to help women receive factual information about their baby and his or her development before making a life or death decision to have an abortion.
What Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council finds abhorrent is Richards’ reaction to the ruling.
“Her organization recognizes that the biggest weapon in the abortion debate is the ultrasound machine,” Perkins said. “For thousands of women, this window into the womb is the only persuasion they need to reconsider abortion. And, as Richards’s group has proved, pro-abortion activists will do everything in their power to stop mothers from recognizing the personhood of their unborn babies.”

“This is a country where Americans can’t even play paintball without signing a paper acknowledging the risks. How does it possibly make sense to let women undergo a major surgical procedure without giving them all the facts?” he said. “The media may be calling it a victory for pro-lifers, but in this case, women and their babies are the real winners. While Texans still have the right to “choose,” at least they’ll finally know what they’re choosing.”

Care Net President Melinda Delahoyde, the head of a network of pregnancy centers that provide women with abortion alternatives, agreed.

She said the court’s decision “affirms that women deserve full and accurate information about their pregnancy before they consent to an abortion. Once again, abortion providers tipped their hand by arguing that they alone should determine the level of information provided to a woman prior to an elective abortion.”

Delahoyde added: “Texas’s informed consent law ensures that abortion providers allow women the time and medical information necessary to make a truly informed pregnancy decision. When women have the opportunity to see their baby on ultrasound, learn about fetal development and understand the medical risks of abortion, they often find the courage to choose life. Care Net applauds the 5th Circuit for a decision that respects women and respects life.”

Dr. Sandy Christiansen, Medical Consultant for Care Net added: “Informed consent is one of the tenets of sound medical practice. Medical science has supplied the “window to the womb” in ultrasound. I can think of no better tool than ultrasound to provide a woman with critical knowledge as she makes a life changing decision.”

California Raises Taxes and Texas Wins

From: Gay Patriot

A newly trentagenarian reader sent me a Steven Malanga’s piece about the outflow of jobs from the (once-)Golden State:

Over the last 15 years, California ranks as the third worst state in the country in terms of job migration, with a net outflow of jobs that is 1 percent greater than the flow of jobs into the state, according to the National Establishment Time Series database. Texas, by contrast, is 10th best in the nation in that period, with a plus 1.3 percent inflow of jobs from other states. Based on Vranich’s anecdotal list, Texas is the biggest beneficiary of jobs leaving California.
. . . .
There are many reasons for the cost differences between the states, but government clearly plays a role. The chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc., a California based owner of restaurant chains, told Bloomberg News that it takes only six weeks to get approvals to open a new eatery in Texas, but up to two years in California. Given those dynamics, is it any wonder that Texas has been generating more net jobs through start-ups and expansions than California?

Unfortunately, it seems that the incumbent governor is clueless about the impact state regulation has on those costs. As Sonicfrog reminds us, Jerry Brown recently “signed into law legislation” mandating that “33% of all power generated in California was to be renewable.” Such a benchmark, Sonic adds, can only be met with “massive energy price increases by energy providers AND massive government subsidies”.