Last year Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen earned her 15 minutes of internet fame when she said during a hearing that the earth is 6,000 years old (YouTube). Sadly, in addition to that Natural Resources Committee, which was considering uranium mining (you know, the stuff that helps scientists date rocks), Allen also serves on the Senate's Education Committee. Mull on that, but not too long.
Well, she's back at it. Tuesday, during a Senate debate on a bill that goes another step further in restricting abortion rights in Arizona, Senator Allen told a story about seeing the ultrasound of her grandchild-to-be. Then, reminiscent of the 6,000-year gaffe, the real estate agent from Snowflake opened her mouth again before engaging the brain, and waxed philosophically about violence in America:
"If you look at what has happened to our country in the last 40 years and the violence that takes place in this country -- those statistics all slowly start rising and go up right along when we started allowing abortions and the killing of babies," she said. "Maybe child abuse would stop if this country went back to saying that life, no matter how young it is, should be protected and respected." Arizona Republic
Just as Senator Allen didn't consult a science textbook before blabbering on about the Grand Canyon's relative youth, neither did she dip into any actual evidence before linking child abuse and other crimes with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Lemme see ... Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon was released in that year too -- maybe that explains all the bad shit that's happened since.
Not only is the Senator guilty of faulty logic, her "facts" aren't.