Dinos in the Dome

If the city is a jungle, the Capitol, it seems, is a place of prehistoric wonders – especially when it comes to women's reproductive health. So says NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, which has identified five dinosaurs roaming the Capitol hallways – easily identified by their out-of-touch views regarding preventative health care for women. All five – Rep. Frank "the Fetus" Corte, R-San Antonio; Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa; Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler; Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands; and newly elected Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston – are white men from comfy corners of the world where fuzzy bunnies must roam the planet. Or so it would seem, since the prehistoric Fab 5 persist in filing bills that clamp down on access to reproductive health, in part by placing hurdles to access – as with Corte's so-called "informed consent" and life-begins-at-fertilization mantra or Chisum's "trigger bill" that would outlaw all abortion services should the U.S. Supreme Court ever decide to overturn Roe v. Wade – and in part by trying to squeeze the state's family-planning funds in favor of ideologically driven pet projects: à la Williams' diversion of funds from proven preventative health care programs for poor women into anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers, which, in fact, provide no medical services whatsoever.

NARAL (www.prochoicetexas.org) hopes its new Don't Be a Dinosaur: Prevention First campaign will drive the Fab 5 to extinction by highlighting "the hypocrisy of elected officials who focus on measures that make abortion more difficult and dangerous, while ignoring commonsense proposals that empower women to improve their health and prevent unintended pregnancies," said Carol Drennan, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas interim executive director. "It should be crystal clear that playing politics with health care hurts Texas families."