When the Texas anti-abortion bill author wasn't worried about kids who were 'not born yet'

Texas state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg has become notorious in recent weeks for her authorship of a vicious anti-abortion bill (and her view that rape kits clean a woman out), and in the process of pushing her bill, Laubenberg has repeatedly referred to fetuses as babies. But back in 2007, when she was trying to limit prenatal care under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), it was a very different story.

Democratic Rep. Rafael Anchia can be seen on video challenging Laubenberg's amendment, asking "What would be the impact on children? How many children would be kicked off the plan with the amendment that you're proposing?" Laubenberg insisted that the answer was "none."

"I have a document before me that estimates that your amendment would kick 95,480 children off of CHIP," Anchia responded. Laubenberg began shouting about that being "ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE ... THERE ARE MISINFORMATION." But what it boiled down to was this: Anchia was talking about prenatal care and "... when the children are born in this country, they are US citizens are they not? So you do know, don't you, that they are US citizen children, correct?"

To which Laubenberg responded blankly "But they're not born yet."

They're not born yet? Someone who is trying to ban abortion after 20 weeks because 20-week fetuses are babies wanted to deny prenatal care because "they're not born yet"?

"That's the whole point," Anchia parried. "You have an anti-life amendment."

Missing the point, Laubenberg asserted that "there is no one more pro-life." Just not, apparently, more pro-prenatal-care-for-poor-kids. The cliche is that Republicans only care about fetuses until they're born, but Laubenberg takes it a step further. She doesn't care about fetuses before they're born if state health care dollars are in play. Laubenberg did withdraw her amendment, though. Not because she could possibly admit Anchia was right, but because while "you're absolutely wrong, your numbers are wrong, your information is wrong ... but because we've already been here for how many hours, we still have X number of amendments to go, and I will be back, but right now, out of consideration for the body, I will pull this amendment down." Gracious as she is bright!

Source: http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/VKTiUsnDvl4/-When-the-Texas-anti-abortion-bill-author-wasn-t-worried-about-kids-who-were-not-born-yet

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