It Happened One Night . . . In Texas ! ! !

One courageous woman lawmaker and the people of Texas stood up to the legislature and defeated an anti-abortion bill that would have closed nearly every abortion clinic in the state.   It would have prohibited abortions after 20 weeks, restricted access to medical abortions, placed onerous requirements on doctors who do them, and put such restrictions on outpatient abortion facilities as to effectively shut them down.

But it did not pass.   Gov. Rick Perry had called a special session of the legislature to deal with the issue;  the lower legislative house had passed it, and the governor was ready to sign it.   The state senate had to pass it before midnight last night.

The Texas state legislature has a filibuster law that tries to make it impossible to carry out.   Only one person may speak.   S/he may not sit down, may not eat or drink, may not lean on the podium, may not take a bathroom break, and must not stray from the topic.   S/he gets a warning for breaking any of these rules;  and a third violation ends the filibuster.

Senator Wendy Davis took on this formidable challenge.    She has the determination.  At age 19 she was a single mother;   she later graduated with honors from Harvard Law School.

Sen. Davis began her filibuster in the morning with the plan to keep it up and run out the clock at midnight -- 13 hours -- thus killing the bill.

She received one warning for getting off topic early on;  a second warning for having help to put on a back brace during the evening.  Around 10 pm she mentioned the RU486 abortion-inducing medication, and the chairman ruled that off topic.   Another senator called for an appeal of the decision.   This led to a number of parliamentary procedures until another woman senator took the microphone and complained about not being recognized to speak.

With 12 minutes to go until midnight, the chair was trying to call a vote amidst the chaos.  The gallery crowd erupted with shouts of "boo" and cries of "shame," drowning out floor proceedings.     The clock ran out.   The bill failed to pass.

Gov. Perry can simply call another special session.  But maybe there is hope.   Don't minimize the effect of a woman standing for 11 hours without a bathroom break, without food or drink, -- ready to go on for the full 13 hours.   That galvanizes people power.   It also shines the world media's spotlight on what the good old boys of Texas tried to do to their "little women" in the name of "protecting life."

Ralph