Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) attended a rally outside the Texas state capitol on Monday, firing up supporters of a controversial anti-abortion bill by saying abortion is like slavery.
From the Texas Tribune:
Huckabee compared abortion to slavery, asking if society could reject slavery and "come to the conclusion that one person can take the life of another person."
Huckabee has repeatedly made it clear that he feels this to be an appropriate parallel. In 2007, he made the comparison while rejecting abortion as a states' rights issue.
"It's the logic of the Civil War," Huckabee said, comparing abortion rights to slavery. "If morality is the point here, and if it's right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can't have 50 different versions of what's right and what's wrong."
Two years later, he told an anti-choice group that he believed the issue of abortion was resolved "150 years ago when the issue of slavery was finally settled in this country, and we decided that it no longer was a political issue, it wasn’t an issue of geography, it was an issue of morality." In 2011, he again argued against abortion rights being determined at the state level, saying that "it was wrong to own a slave in Mississippi and Michigan."
Texas lawmakers are currently in a special session, called by Gov. Rick Perry (R) after a lengthy filibuster by state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) and a raucous crowd kept the legislature from concluding work on legislation designed to restrict abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It would also threaten to shut down all but five abortion clinics in Texas.
The state House is expected to debate and vote on the bill on Tuesday.
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