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Gov. Abbott Claims He Will “Eliminate Rapists” as He Signs Voter Restriction Bill into Law

HeadlineSep 08, 2021

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law the state’s sweeping new voter suppression bill, SB1, Tuesday. The law bars drive-thru and 24-hour voting sites, adds new identification requirements for absentee ballots, bans unsolicited mail-in ballot applications and gives new authority to partisan poll watchers. Voting rights groups have vowed to keep fighting the law, which already faces at least five challenges in state and federal courts.

Meanwhile, Abbott has come under renewed fire over comments he made during the SB1 signing ceremony. Referring to Texas’s recently enacted, near-total ban on abortions, a reporter asked Abbott, “Why force a rape or incest victim to carry a pregnancy to term?”

Gov. Greg Abbott: “It provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion. And so, for one, it doesn’t provide that. That said, however, this makes something very clear: Rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets.”

New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted Abbott after the comments for his “deep ignorance.”

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