Anyone who doubts that Texas is now a battleground state should take a second look at the hard-fought battles-including Thursday’s “people’s filibuster”-during the past week after Republican Gov. Rick Perry, at the urging of Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, added onerous abortion restrictions to the special session, restrictions that would close all but 5 abortion clinics in Texas even though the GOP-controlled legislature had failed to pass any anti-abortion bills during the regular session.
Please Stand With Texas Women today as our Democratic Senators filibuster Senate Bill 5 while other Democratic politicians, women’s health advocates, activists, and ordinary Texans support this battle to prevent Republican Senators from passing their anti-woman, anti-abortion omnibus bill in the final hours of this special session, which ends at midnight.
Dems Approach Abortion Victory as Special Session Wanes
Texas Democrats, far outnumbered by Republicans in both the House and the Senate, are nonetheless on the verge of killing one of the most restrictive abortion proposals in the nation – at least for now.
Using delaying tactics and parliamentary rules, the minority party argued into the wee hours in the state House on Monday morning and then stuck together to keep the GOP from jamming Senate Bill 5 through the Senate in the afternoon and evening. Republicans vowed to try to muster enough support to push the bill through Monday night, but that effort failed. […]
Sen. Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat and rising star in the party, has vowed to launch a filibuster. Unless Republicans can change some votes, the abortion measure can’t be brought up for debate until Tuesday morning at about 11 a.m. Since the session ends at midnight Tuesday, that means she could kill the legislation by talking nonstop for about 13 hours.
As Democratic Senator Wendy Davis leads the filibuster, she needs Texas women to share your stories:
Stand with me tomorrow, and share your story with me so I can tell it from the Senate floor. http://t.co/svlU3seE6z #SB5 #txlege
– Wendy Davis (@WendyDavisTexas) June 25, 2013
Filibuster: 2 hours @WendyDavisTexas going strong with less that 11 hrs to go. Stand with Texas women. #txlege #SB5 pic.twitter.com/278MDqjgWN
– Sylvia R. Garcia (@SenatorSylvia) June 25, 2013