Gov. Abbott stung by activist, caught on camera bragging about outlawing abortion in Texas

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When progressive activist Lauren Windsor, executive producer and creator of grassroots political web-show The Undercurrent,  pretended to be a pro-lifer asking for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s autograph, she also took the opportunity to query the governor on his full stance regarding reproductive rights in Texas—all the while filming him without his knowledge.

Windsor tells Abbott, “We want to thank you so much for defending the unborn,” and asks what more he can do “until Roe v. Wade is not the law of the land anymore.”

“Can you do something about morning-after pills birth control, ‘cause I think it’s destroying the fabric of our society, giving women incentives to be promiscuous,” Windsor said.

Falling for her Borat-style schtick and thinking she was an anti-abortion ally, Abbott spilled the beans, telling her essentially that he had basically outlawed abortion in Texas, pointing to two laws he’d recently signed. One that outlaws morning-after pills to be purchased via mail-order and the other he referred to as the “Trigger Bill.”

Abbott was talking about House Bill 1280, which would take effect 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, or after a court ruling or constitutional amendment gives states the authority to prohibit abortions. 

The governor went on to applaud Windsor and her accomplice for being “so pro-life.” 

Windsor and her group have perfected the gotcha sting, catching unwitting Republicans in a slew of gaffes. As Daily Beast reports, Windsor caught Sen. Ron Johnson at a GOP event in Milwaukee saying there was “nothing obviously skewed” about election results in his home state. 

But, Windsor doesn’t always do her interviews undercover. In July, she pounced on Florida’s Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, who is currently under investigation for paying to transport a minor across state lines for sex, if he believed sleeping with a teenager made him a pedophile. 

“My being there and asking him if he was a pedophile was to really key in on the ridiculousness of the situation in the first place,” Windsor told Daily Beast. 

In the end, Windsor got Abbott to admit what we all know is his end game: a total ban on a person’s right to have an abortion and wholesale prohibition of birth control.