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Stand With Texas Women to Block Passage of #SB5 UPDATED: Women Won!

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End the War on Women by Tanene Allison, Texas Democratic Party Communications Director photo EndtheWaronWomenbyTaneneAllison_zps85e46b45.jpg

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 Texas Women - Planned Parenthood photo standwithtexaswomen_zpsbe2912e7.png

What you can do today to Stand With Texas Women

Go to the capitol: #SB5 Action Alert: Come Early, Stay Late, Wear Orange: Katherine Haenschen offers excellent advice for those who are able to travel to Austin.

Call your TX legislator’s office: If you’re a Texan, call your legislator to politely yet firmly register your opposition to SB 5. I’ve heard that they will feel as though they’re being bombarded if they receive just 15 calls. We can do better than that. Be sure to thank our Democratic legislators for their efforts as well.

Change your profile pic: Haenschen also provides a link to the orange Stand With Texas Women pic so that you can show your support of us today. And wear orange, regardless of whether you’re going to Austin.

Share on social media: Y’all know what to do. Please use #sb5 and #txlege.

Get Active:

And join me and the other Battleground Texas Summer Fellows as we register Texans to vote.

Additional Background

Hundreds of Texans Block Odious Anti-Abortion Bill with “People’s Filibuster” by ericlewis0

“People’s Filibuster” Stops Vote on Anti-Abortion Bill in Texas House

Representative Jessica Farrar: “The Majority Cannot Ignore the Rest of Texans” by Katherine Haenschen, BOR

Texas Republican finds cure for rape! by Barbara Morrill

Storify: Texas Republicans Continue War On Women, Texans Fight Back by Joe Deshotel, BOR

GOP abortion bills mandate medical malpractice by Jon Perr

Wendy’s Last Stand by PDiddie

Texas Tribune
Burnt Orange Report
Battleground Texas
Texas Democratic Party
Who represents me? (Texas)

Note: Cross-posted from orange.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 51 Comments

51 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    I thought the whole thing was in vain but if Davis can keep at it and kill the bill for the current session I have renewed hope.

  3. bfitzinAR

    my various family members are (these blogs are the only “social media” I do), my bet is at least one, possibly two, of my sisters and a cousin are either there or supporting in some way. The attacks on women in general and Planned Parenthood in particular are what caused my life-long R aunt to vote for Obama last year.

  10. anotherdemocrat

    Rachel Farris ‏@MeanRachel 16m

    Next time you’re too busy to vote, remember this crappy feeling. Right. Now. #txlege #sb5 #standwithwendy

  12. Kysen

    and I like that we’re not alone in our admiration of it:

    “Something special is happening in Austin tonight. #StandWithWendy”

    -President Barack Obama

     

  13. nomandates

    We were loud enough to prevent them from finishing that last roll call before midnight.

    Now, Dem Senators are trying to figure out what to do about sine die because they think that the GOP will move to extend time.

    And there are now 50 troopers in the gallery arresting those who have been disrupting there.

  14. louisprandtl

    devote more resources to built base infrastructure than playing washington inside game.

    Will definitely increase my annual contribution to Planned Parenthood this year.

    Need to wait out the furlough period though.

  18. anotherdemocrat

    and State Rep Jessica Ferrar are all heroes. They fought an amazing fight — and turned the whole world’s eyes to Texas. I am really proud of us. Even when Perry calls another special session, I’m still amazingly proud of this last week here.

  20. HappyinVT

    and a little something to take a bit of sting out of the VRA ruling.

    Now we need to keep the momentum going for the next session and in OH where another odious anti-choice bill is pending.

  21. Rashaverak

    And the other women of the State Senate.

    Harry Reid: take a lesson from this.  Grow a backbone.  Put on a back brace if you have to.

  22. JanF

    Wendy Davis, Superhero

    Wendy Davis is my hero. Make that my superhero. This brave and unbelievably stalwart legislator filibustered for nearly eleven hours to prevent a vote on SB5, a draconian bill that would ban abortion after twenty weeks and regulate abortion providers so severely all but five of the state’s forty-two clinics would be forced to close.

  23. pittiepat

    piece of crap passed, I’ll bet the R’s in the Lege are busy plotting how to circumvent similar protests before they vote again.  I’m hoping that this episode has finally opened lots of eyes about what disgusting people are running the state.  There’s also going to have to be a big effort launched against AG Abbott’s in-the-works plan to suppress as many minority votes as possible.

  24. JanF

    Wendy and the Boys

    There is an old saying that Texas is “heaven for men and dogs, but hell for women and oxen.” But the state’s history is chock-full of stories of female role models. Barbara Jordan. Ann Richards. In downtown Austin, there’s a statue of Angelina Eberly, heroine of the Texas Archives War of 1842, firing a cannon and looking about 7 feet tall.

    She adds Wendy Davis to that list.

    Why is this fight so important?

    Texas is a state with one of the nation’s highest teenage motherhood rates, where a majority of women who give birth are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. So, naturally, its political leaders have declared war against the right of women to choose whether or not they want to be pregnant. Funding for family planning has been slashed. This month, Gov. Rick Perry tried to pass a new law that would have shut down almost all the abortion clinics in the state, under the guise of expanded health and safety requirements.

    Incredible hubris by Republican legislators:

    A few years back, Davis told me about an incident during a debate when she had asked a veteran Republican a question about a pending bill. Dodging her query, he said: “I have trouble hearing women’s voices.”

    182,000 people watched the livecast of the filibuster. I hope people don’t change the channel when the 2nd episode comes on or have trouble hearing women’s voices.

    Nancy Pelosi on the War on Women

    I’ve been in Congress for 25 years. For 23 or 4 of them, I would go home or go across the country and tell people, “Forget abortion. They do not believe in contraception and family planning.” And people would say to me, “That can’t be true. If I thought it were true, I would never vote Republican again.” And it is true. Only when they took power two years ago, when they were going to shut down the government rather than fund Planned Parenthood, did people understand how bad they were on the subject…It’s revealed them for who they are. So this is the fight. It’s a fight on family planning, contraception, as well as terminating a pregnancy and without having adequate protections for women in case of rape or incest, life of the mother. It’s so hypocritical…They don’t believe in government…except when it comes to the bedroom.

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