Texas Rep: Fellow GOPer Tore My 'Former Fetus' Sign

Texas state Rep. Jonathan Stickland used to be a fetus, and a fellow Republican he clashed with over a sign advertising that fact accuses him of acting like a child. Stickland was one of what an anti-abortion group says is hundreds of lawmakers who received "Former Fetus" nameplates ahead of a Planned Parenthood rally outside the Capitol yesterday, the Texas Tribune reports. "Organizations that murder children are not welcome in my office," Stickland said in a Facebook post with a photo of the sign, but he soon complained that it was "ripped down and thrown in my staffer's face" by Rep. Charlie Geren, chair of the House Administration Committee.

Geren says the signs from Texas Right to Life were removed and returned to lawmakers because they violate State Preservation Board rules on signs inside the Capitol, the Tribune reports. "If Stickland wants to act like a child, that's fair, but I did not rip it down," he says. A Right to Life spokeswoman tells the Dallas Morning News that the group is "saddened by the thought that there would be anyone that would want to take down the signage." The sign clash and Planned Parenthood rally came amid a debate on a budget bill that could result in clinics losing state funding for breast cancer screening, the Huffington Post reports. (More Texas stories.)