Ken Paxton: Restrict abortion, protect religion

[TexasTowelie]

Attorney General Ken Paxton has urged state legislative leaders to press for stronger abortion restrictions as well as laws allowing businesses and government workers to refuse to serve gay couples who seek to marry.

Saying many Texans fear that their values are under assault, Paxton asked fellow Republicans Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus to lay the groundwork for a 2017 legislative session that would “recognize that every human life, including unborn babies, has the right to live.”

“Moreover, human dignity requires that a person be free to exercise his or her religious faith and that no government will discriminate or oppress a person based on the person’s thoughts or beliefs,” he said in identical letters to Patrick and Straus that were dated Wednesday and publicly released Thursday.

Civil liberties and abortion rights advocates accused Paxton of political posturing by offering shortsighted solutions to problems that do not exist.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/ken-paxton-restrict-abortion-protect-religion/nnyLd/

[TexasTowelie]

1. Later in the article:

In his letters to Straus and Patrick, Paxton asked them to direct House and Senate committees to focus on:

• Banning abortions earlier than the current 20-week limit.

• More tightly regulate the “sale, donation and use” of fetal body parts after an abortion, and require fetal remains to be treated with the same dignity afforded to bodies of adults.

• Require abortion clinics to report pregnancies of women aged 16 and younger to law enforcement “as a potential sexual assault.”

• Require doctors to report the steps taken during every abortion.

• Allow religious organizations to follow their beliefs on hiring and housing decisions, protect religious beliefs of counselors and bar tax assessors from revoking the tax-exempt status of religious institutions.

• Make anti-discrimination laws uniform statewide, a move that could jeopardize city and county ordinances that protect gay, lesbian and transgender citizens.

[msongs]

2. religion is all about problems that do not exist nt

[They_Live]

3. Does this mean I can claim unborn children as dependents

when calculating my taxes?

[TexasTowelie]

4. There is no income tax in Texas

so that's a moot question.