Approximately 75,000 abortions were performed in Texas last year. State Sen. Dan Patrick, a Republican, wants to reduce that number by offering a cash incentive to pregnant women considering abortion if they carry their baby to term and choose adoption.

"If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those women, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq," Patrick said.

He has filed legislation to give all potential abortion patients a $500 cash option to continue pregnancy and be paid no more than 30 days after the baby is born and given up for adoption.

In typical pro-abortion rhetoric, Heather Paffe, political director of Planned Parenthood of Texas, claims Patrick's proposal "is very cynical and insulting to women and their families.”

"It's insulting to think women would make that kind of decision so easily," she said.

Ironically, $500 - the amount Texas would be offering a woman to keep her pregnancy - is the same that Planned Parenthood charges for a first trimester chemical (medication) abortion and necessary tests. Apparently it’s only insulting to give pregnant women a large sum of cash, not take it away from them.

Other detractors say that the idea stops just short of selling children. "It's the stuff nightmares are made of," said Fran Hagerty of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas. "This is insulting to women and also insulting to all the great charitable organizations out there that do wonderful work finding adoptive parents and taking care of the birth mother."

I personally find it insulting that liberal pro-abortionists are trying to push their agenda against life by assuming the public is unintelligent. Anyone who can read can research the facts and see that Planned Parenthood of Texas holds a double standard when it comes to the treatment of pregnant women in crisis.

According to them, the government should not be able to offer a cash incentive for choosing adoption, which obviously reduces abortion rates. On the other hand, they profit on each and every abortion they perform.

If you disagree with the profit issue and claim that they are performing an altruistic public service, look at the price of a medication abortion versus a surgical abortion. Drug-induced abortions cost far more because they are much more attractive to a woman who doesn’t want to undergo an invasive procedure. Look at any abortion website; you’ll find that medication abortions are heavily advised.

Having an abortion performed is just as degrading to a woman as getting cosmetic breast implants: it takes advantage of a vulnerable woman, violently assaults her femininity, and profits off her insecurities. What a lie that kind of “empowerment” is!

In the end, an individual will make up his or her own mind about the abortion debate. Be sure to research the issues in detail, don't just take sound bytes from the media as fact. Above all, think for yourself and logically take in the whole picture.

Sources: Reuters, Associated Press, Houston Chronicle