Where's NARAL, NOW and Planned Parenthood?
Texas is to begin mandating vaccination of schoolgirls against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease and the primary precursor to cervical cancer. (Full story here.)
Why aren't we hearing from the "keep your laws off my body" crowd?
Why aren't we hearing from the "keep your laws off my body" crowd?
posted by Scribbler de Stebbing | 2/02/2007 04:54:00 PM
The groups are likely lumping it into the category of "it's just like a flu shot." But also because it supposedly prevents the "big C" word neither side is going to touch this one.
Ah, but flu shots aren't backed by the full faith and force of Texas law. Next thing you know, they'll be mandating seat belts!
My first reaction to reading your post, Scribbler, was, "How did this liberal social-engineering effort first gain traction in Texas, of all places? After all, Texas has a Republican governor, two Republican U.S. senators, real judicial elections, and gerrymandered legislative districts orchestrated by Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, not to mention tons of fundamentalist religious types.
After reading the article and learning that this is really about a big corporation leveraging politicians to artificially boost the market for one of its products, the reason Merck has found success in Texas is sadly all too clear: Texas has a long, bipartisan history of pols amassing power from doling out corporate welfare.
Mark Russell, the smarmy liberal musical "humorist", used a line many years ago to explain how someone as dull as Lloyd Bentsen could win statewide office in Texas and gain national political prominence. The line summed up Texas' corporate-welfare history nicely: "Lloyd Bentsen's known for his pro-quo-quidness. For in Texas, that's how they all do bidness."
Still, for the governor to do this bidding by executive order is pretty slippery, even by Texas' standards.
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