Another Reason Why Texas Women-- And Texas Men Who Like Women-- Should Support Beto O'Rourke

Beto is 44 and Ted Cruz is 46-- but look what God did to Cruz

This is a pretty easy one. Republican crackpot and extremist Diane Black (R-TN) introduced a bill to overturn a rule that prohibited states defunding Planned Parenthood. Back on February 16 it passed the House, 230-188, two Republicans voting with the Democrats and two dirty Blue Dogs-- Dan Lipinski (IL) and Collin Peterson (MN)-- voting with the Republicans, as they usually do. Beto O'Rourke, the congressman from El Paso, Texas, was one of 186 Democrats to oppose the rule.

Fast forward to last Thursday, March 30. Up pops Black's Joint Resolution. The vote gets called and all the Democrats vote NO-- including even the worst conservaDems like Manchin, Donnelly and Heitkamp (the 3 planning to help the Republicans confirm Gorsuch to the Supreme Court). Then two Republican women, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Mirkowski, crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats. You know what that means? 50/50 split.

McConnell called Pence and he scurried down to the Senate to break the tie and pass the toxic measure. There are three Republicans in jeopardy in 2018, jeopardy that could cause the Senate to shift hands from Republican to Democrat. If and it is a BIG "if," the Democrats manage to hold onto all the red state senators up for reelection and knock off Dean Heller (NV), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Ted Cruz (TX), game over for the Trump agenda... on the spot. Boom! Finito!

Heller, Flake and Cruz all voted to allow women who depend on one of the 650 clinic operated by Planned Parenthood for healthcare to suffer without it. They see around 2,500,000 million women annually. In Texas there are just 14 clinics left-- in Addison, Arlington, Austin, Bedford, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth, Lewisville, Mesquite, Paris, Plano, Tyler and Waco. Cruz-- who now admits he would vote for a bill to repeal Obamacare even without replacing it-- wants all these clinics shut down. Beto wants women to have access to whichever healthcare they choose.

When Maine Republican Susan Collins said that "Family planning funds are the best way to reduce the number of abortions," Cruz sneered. “You already can’t use federal funds for abortion," she reminded Senate Republicans, so "we shouldn’t be restricting these family planning funds." Cruz is now trying to disqualify Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed by Medicaid to treat low-income women, which Collins called "so unfair because that’s treating them differently from every other Medicaid provider... That’s saying that women, in particular, cannot choose their own health-care provider and it’s very Republican to say that you ought to be able to make your own choice of provider." Cruz has long been a leading advocate in the Republican War against women. If women fight back, he'll be out of a job in 2019 and Beto O'Rourke will replace him in the Senate. If you'd like to help make that a reality, please tap on the Senate thermometer on the right and give what you can.