Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly brayed about the awesome freedom and prosperity of non-nanny state Texas - as opposed to California which, for Bill, represents the worst of the "nanny state." He provided stats which showed that Texas is ahead of California on a number of matrices. As with much of O'Reilly's bloviation, his stats aren't entirely correct. And during his diatribe, he asserted that Texas doesn't believe in "micro-managing" its residents. As with much of O'Reilly's bloviation, that too is malarkey, given that Texas abortion restrictions are all about micro-managing women's bodies, including reading scripts that are, like Bill's, a steaming pile of bold, fresh, Texas sized bullshit!

Texas has the most "prescriptive counseling laws" among which require doctors to tell women that abortion is linked to breast cancer and that just isn't true. There is no link. Before an abortion, women are required to have an ultrasound while the doctor describes fetus - the ultimate form of slut shaming that Bill O'Reilly would love. After the sonogram, which could include the invasion of a women's body with a transvaginal probe if the heartbeat isn't detected, the patient must wait 24 hours before she can have the procedure. Texas Governor Rick Perry, a "pro-life" Christian like O'Reilly, is doing his best to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, a health facility used by many poor women in Texas. I guess Bill wants them to have the "freedom" to have unplanned pregnancies, untreated STD's, and cervical cancer.

So even though Texas, according to Bill, is a place of unlimited freedom and rugged individualism, that freedom isn't extended to the reproductive organs of Texas women. And Bill says there's no war on women?

Nanny State?