Getty Images
For much of the political establishment, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is a fiscal wonk preoccupied with lowering the deficit he helped increase during the Bush/Cheney era.
But for those more familiar with his record, Ryan is, and has always been, a fierce culture warrior.
In recent years, Ryan fought against contraception access; he worked with Todd Akin to redefine rape; he said the government should force women impregnated by rape or incest to carry their pregnancies to term; he co-sponsored a "Personhood" measure that would ban in-vitro fertilization and some forms of birth control; and he twice voted for a constitutional amendment to prevent marriage equality.
As the new Congress gets underway, the far-right Wisconsinite appears to be picking up where he left off.
Despite the deep unpopularity of fetal personhood bills in 2012, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has again decided to cosponsor the Sanctity of Human Life Act, a bill that gives full legal rights to human zygotes from the moment of fertilization.
Ryan, who reportedly has 2016 presidential ambitions, had to de-emphasize his opposition to abortion without exceptions during the 2012 election to align his position with presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But this year, Ryan has been tapped as a keynote speaker for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List's sixth annual Campaign for Life Gala, and he is re-upping his support for the most extreme anti-abortion legislation in the country.
As was the case in the last Congress, the "Sanctity of Human Life Act" has no realistic chance of becoming law at any point in the next four years, but that obviously didn't dissuade Ryan, who wants to be on record backing the extreme proposal anyway.
Leave a Comment:
He knows it won't pass because that's all the teapubs do is put up bills they know won't pass. He'll be naming a Post Office later so he will get something done.
Paul Ryan... the sexist PIG! GOP... haters of anyone other than RICH MEN! Women GOP... sellouts to their own sex. Blackburn and that nasty toad Black need their heads examined. They are both on the same "path" right now.
Do these people even live in reality? Do they actually listen to anyone except the rich old perverts who are giving them money? Sorry... but, THEY HAVE NO RIGHT to TAKE AWAY ANYONE's RIGHTs.
Is he secretly gay? I mean all those pictures of his pecs ...
For all Ryan's useless introduction of legislation that will never pass, I wonder how much he has cost the government. There is legislation that has not been dealt with like the Post Office legislation and other important business and this nut wastes time and money introducing legislation against woman's reproductive rights. I'm so sick of it. I hope more GOP are run out of office in 2014. By the way, he is in denial if he thinks he will ever be elected President.
I guess you could say he's committed to his beliefs even when they are not politically popular.
Except when he is told not to...
Ah, my fantasy in 2016: they put Ryan up against Hillary because he couldn't possibly lose.
I know, it'll be an Hispanic or another woman. But I can dream.
Actually his positions are very popular with the people he needs to impress to get the nomination, the right wingnut base. If he enters the republican primaries in four years, he'll be just as right wing as now and then if he wins the nomination, he'll shake the Etch a Sketch and return to what he was during the last campaign.
Remember those uncomfortable interviews when Ryan had to toe the Romney line on this... Now we get the "real" Ryan... a man who wants you to have a child you can't afford, and then make sure that child gets no help whatsoever...
It is really sick when a elected legislatior wants to force a woman to have the child that was conceived in rape either by a stranger or a family member (incest). Totally disgusting.
Note to the politically naive: It is not about beliefs, it is about money. (Have you EVER gotten a letter or an email that did not close with a plea for a donation? (Sierra Club/Club for Growth/NARAL/NRA; oh the list is endless!)
Considering the left's push for full legal rights to illegals, why not a fetus? After all, it's been blessed an American if born on the right side of the border.
So, what is your excuse?
If zygotes have full legal rights, would that not also give them the right to sue? I'm sure there are all kinds of reasons for zygotes to sue, but wouldn't it be grand to see a zygote class action suit against Paul Ryan?
In Ryan's world, that fetus has all legal rights until it emerges from the womb. Once it's out, it becomes a government teat sucking parasite that must die to control spending.
Wonderful world he lives in, huh?
LOL I'm sorry, but this is just funny! This is like when people say we shouldn't give amnesty to illegals because then that will encourage more illegals to come to the US. Apparently even though Shooter is using the terms "full legal rights" and "illegals" he does not understand their meaning. Too funny.
Not to mention that if they are a person at fertilization, then wouldn't they be almost 1 year old when they are born? They could also apply for full social security 9 months early and get it. What about the legal drinking age and voting? Things to consider.
Not to mention the "legal: discrimination against women that this would cause. A bartender could refuse women alcohol - how would she/he know that the woman he was serving had a little fertilized zygote? This could be the same excuse for not selling cigerettes to women. A motel/hotel for couples could charge for three people - the man, the woman and the soon-to-be fertilized zygote - if it hasn't been already. Would the woman be able to work graveyard shift because doing so would keep the little legal zygote up past a minor's curfew. Could businesses fire women from physical labor jobs as soon as they were married because the workplace would not want to be liable for a possible miscarriage due to strenous work? Since Paul Ryan and ilk seem to think the 40's and 50's were the best God-fearing, soul-saving era that this nation ever had, because men were men and women knew their place, he has hit upon the most ingenious idea. Now if he will just remember that the price for such a lifestyle were higher taxes...
Kanopsis --
See Michigan state legislature who recently tried to pass a bill getting "parents" a tax credit for a fetus in utero
Shooter,
Still trying to reverse the 14th Amendment and expel the descendents of former slaves, eh? I always thought having all long-term residents of a community being citizens was a conservative value, but then the whole skin color thing is not significant for me.
OK, wrap your intellect around this one: 16-year old is raped and impregnated by her father or other male relation, travels to Britain or Canada to obtain an abortion, and returns to the US. IF a zygote is a person from conception, she has committed first-degree murder and should be arrested, tried, and imprisoned for 25 years to life.
Is THAT your position? Are you willing to pay extra income taxes to build and staff more federal prisons, courts, and marshal offices?
JSE, you don't need prisons if you just shoot the little murderers. and charge the family for the bullet, of course. i'm sure some gun-nut will do the chore gratis if you just ask nicely.
oh, i think you forgot the death penalty for starving children to death because you can't work to support them. if they somehow escape dying from hunger i'm sure there's some other "modest proposal" to be offered. just don't get caught eating a fetus or there'll be hell to pay.
he was never a foot soldier in the GOP War on Women.
He was always a GENERAL.
I wish Paul Ryan would put as much energy into gun control as he does into uterus control.
Paul is almost as idiotic as his father Rex. His grandma Irene showed more sense when she played Granny Clampett. He should go on tour with Santorum maybe starting in Baghdad. What a waste of oxygen.
this is snark, right??? i mean the fabulous irene ryan (say her loooong time ago in Pippin - wow!!!) was not really his grandma was she??? oy, my broken heart ...
Must be snark, for Irene Ryan never had children.
If the Democrats introduce a gun control bill, I hope they call it "The Sanctity of Human Life Act".
I know how about democrats introduce "The Sanctity of Life Act" and include tax credits for working parents with children, or how about head start programs, school lunch programs, put Medicare/Medicaid in also, how about supplimental nutrition (food stamps) - aren't all of those about the "Sanctity of Life"....Let's see the GOTP vote that down...
you want to see it voted-down? just be in chambers when they vote on it, or is CSPAN good enough for you?
John 8:3-11
As a man, I can only guess what it must be like for a woman, pregnant, trying to decide whether or not to risk her life, trying to decide if bringing a child into this world is something the child will ever forgive her for doing, not sure whether Newt or Arnie are going to stick around ... and weighing in the balance all the many consequences of an abortion ... as a man, I cam only guess what it may be like.
But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want some man dictating to me.
Maybe if those obsessed with abortion would work to making life easier for the mothers of young children...
Right now having a child is the surest path into poverty or the working poor, whether the parent be single or a couple just starting out. If one wants women to choose life, how about offering them affordable quality childcare so they can work and not go nuts with worry?
can't remember who said it, but: "if men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."
.
I am waiting for the ghost of Susan B. Anthony to appear at one of those meetings and start smiting those arrogant scum left and right for daring to use her name to promote everything she fought against.
Good! I hope he keeps it up. The more radical his policies, the less likely he'll be elected to anything outside his district.
I would agree with that sentiment. Who are we to discourage Ryan's radical views especially when we know they are going to lose votes? We should encourage the radical right because the further right they move, the more elections they will lose. Santorum/Ryan is the ticket for winning in 2016 (or so the radical right thinks). Let the right have their national referendum on their social and economic views. This will be the battle the right has been looking for with Dems. When Republicans lose by a huge margin, the right will not have any excuse about the candidates not being conservative enough. It may finally dawn on the right that their views are not shared by the majority of the public. Or they may still blame MoveOn for the loss. Either way, the country can get back to some sense of normal.
Mr. Paganucci, that is exactly what I was thinking when I read the article. Encourage him to keep it up, just the way people were encouraging Sarah to run again.
These elected idiots who come up with these out of the ballpark notions about life, have no clue or thought as to how these would be implemented that would pass the smell test, not to mention how he's going to pay ofr it. But, then again, they didn't pay for the Bush 43 tax cuts and the Iraq War, either. Here's another lie about wanting smaller government and less intrusion into peoples' Oh, I forgot he's from Wisconsin. It makes you wonder when the electorate there will wake up and see how much money he's wasting in Congress not accomplishing anything to better the economy of the country. I guess for these folks, the ONLY thing that matters is getting re-elected. Why this claim? By all measures, your success is defined by what you get accomnplished. Now I ask, waht has he accomplished, nothing. His fiscal plan didn't go anywhere, his fiscal plan lost him the Vice-Presidency, his abortion legislation attempts and war on women, in part, lost him the Vice Presidency. So, he's a failure as a Representative. His insanity, reflected by dong the same thing over and over expecting a different result should be a wake up call for the electorate in his district, especially the women, to get rid of him as an ineffective representative wasting thier tax payer dollars in the process. I wonder how many of his electorate makes the $175 - 200K salary for being a failure?
Of course another offshoot to Citizen Zygote thinking would be more loud ads on the television by squirrelly "law" firms: "We'll speak for the speck!" or "We'll sue for the goo!" I get a kick watching the Repugnicants anguishing over their loss whilst conveniently overlooking the fact that 87% of them are bat@!$%# crazy!
It's stuff like this that makes me fondly recall "rock star" Ryan delivered neither his district nor his state for his ticket last year.
Perhaps this is what Mr. Ryan has in mind for the women of America.
http://caraobrien.tumblr.com/post/352715826/decree-770-abortion-outlawed-in-communist-romania
When will we get to the point where we decide that every child has a right to be wanted?
These cultural conservatives don't want to provide health care for the fetuses they claim to want to protect. They don't want to provide adequate nutrition for them. They just want them to be born.