Political Views

Perry promotes himself as a social conservative. He supported a successful Texas Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2005. He also signed both parental notification and parental consent legislation for pregnant minors seeking abortions. In 2003, he signed the Prenatal Protection Act, which explicitly included fetuses in its definition of human life.

Perry is also strongly against embryonic stem cell research. Perry came to national attention through the Tea Party's support of his socially conservative views, which came to light with his promotion of "The Response USA," an Evangelical Christian prayer rally he co-sponsored in 2011 in partnership with the American Family Association.

In conjunction with his conservative views, Perry signed a bill further restricting abortions in July of 2013. As part of the bill, all abortions in Texas after 20 weeks of pregnancy will be banned. The controversial bill gained the media's attention for a month before it was signed by Perry. Prior to it's signing, the bill failed after Senator Wendy Davis spent more more than ten hours attempting to filibuster the bill. Soon after it failed, Perry called for lawmakers to reevaluate the bill in a second special session, which led to its signing.

Legal Woes

In August 2014, Rick Perry was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. The charges stem from Perry's efforts to force the resignation of Travis County district attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. He wanted to her to step down after she had been arrested for driving drunk.