TFN President: Gov. Perry Lectures Wendy Davis While Failing to Address the Teen Pregnancy Disaster in Texas
Miller Calls on Governor to Add Passing Comprehensive Sex Ed to Call for the Special Session
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2013
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller today reacted with dismay over Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s attacks on Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, for filibustering an anti-abortion bill on Tuesday.
“Instead of arrogantly lecturing Wendy Davis and other women who have had unplanned pregnancies and faced challenges he can’t begin to imagine, Rick Perry should address his failure as governor to deal honestly with the teen pregnancy epidemic in his own state,” Miller said. “He opposes girls and young women learning about birth control in sex ed so they can responsibly protect their health and their future. Just as appalling has been his support for policies that limit women’s access to family planning services.”
Miller noted that throughout Gov. Perry’s tenure, Texas has had one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation. Texas had the nation’s fifth highest teen birth rate in 2011 and the nation’s highest rate of repeat births to teens in 2010, the most recent years for which that data is available.
In his speech at the National Right to Life conference today, Gov. Perry was patronizing in his insulting reference to Sen. Davis and her filibuster of anti-abortion legislation on Tuesday:
“In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances. She was the daughter of as single woman, she was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas senate. It is just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters.”
Miller called on the governor today to add passing comprehensive sex education to his call for the special legislative session.
Resources on teen pregnancy in Texas:
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Preganancy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan public education and religious liberties watchdog based on in Austin.
