AUSTIN, Texas — More than 600 women’s rights protesters crowded into the Texas Capitol on Sunday to watch House Democrats begin a series of parliamentary maneuvers to stop the Republican majority from passing some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country.
Democrats began the session by pointing to a technicality that delayed voting on any bills for 4½ hours. The forced adjournment burned up precious time because the session is scheduled to end at midnight Tuesday and the abortion bill still needs to go back to the Senate for final approval.
House Democrats said they had a variety of methods to stall and possibly even kill the bills late Sunday. But if they pass early Monday, the Senate must still vote on them Tuesday, giving Senate Democrats a chance to filibuster the bill until midnight. While several bills are under consideration, the only one with a real chance is Senate Bill 5, an omnibus bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, require that they take place in surgical centers, and restrict where and when women can take abortion-inducing pills. Part of the new law would also require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.
Supporters say the measures are intended to protect women’s health, but opponents call them needless regulations to make abortions more difficult to obtain. If passed, 37 out of 42 abortion clinics in Texas would have to close and undergo millions of dollars in upgrades....
Antiabortion groups have enormous influence in Texas’ Republican primaries, and incumbents fearing Tea Party challenges need to register votes on conservative issues before they go home.
Blocking the bill has become a cause for Democrats, who have not won a statewide election in Texas since 1994 but are working to rebuild the party across the state.
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"The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature pushed Monday to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in the nation’s second most-populous state, and Democrats planned an old-fashioned filibuster to stop the final vote....
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Also see: Aborted Post
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Texas Republicans pass sweeping abortion restrictions; Measure will close almost all clinics in state" by Jim Vertuno and Chris Tomlinson | Associated Press, June 26, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republicans passed new abortion restrictions expected to close almost every abortion clinic in the nation’s second most populous state.
WTF?
The Republican-controlled House voted for the bill while hundreds of protesters screamed from the gallery.
Reporters and Democrats saw the voting begin after midnight, but Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said it began just before.
Texas’s special legislative session ended at midnight, and Democrats spent most of the day filibustering the bill. Republicans cited rules to force a vote to end the filibuster....
The filibuster began at 11:18 a.m. Tuesday and continued until 10:03 p.m., less than two hours before the midnight deadline marking the end of the 30-day special session.
Rules stipulate Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat, remain standing, not lean on her desk or take any breaks — even for meals or to use the bathroom. But she must also stay on topic, and Republicans pointed out a mistake and later protested again when another lawmaker helped her with a back brace.
Senator Donna Campbell, a Republican, called the third point of order because of Davis’s remarks on the sonogram law. Lawmakers can vote to end a filibuster after three sustained points of order.
The measures will close most abortion clinics in Texas, a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long, with 26 million people. A woman near Mexico or in West Texas would have to go hundreds of miles for an abortion if the law passes....
Democrats chose Davis, of Fort Worth, to lead the effort because of her background as a woman who had her first child as a teenager and went on to Harvard Law School.
Women’s rights supporters wore orange T-shirts to show their support for Davis....
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UPDATE:
"Republicans insisted the vote started before the midnight deadline and passed the bill that Democrats spent the day trying to kill. But after official computer records and printouts of the voting record showed the vote took place Wednesday, and then were changed to read Tuesday, senators retreated into a private meeting to reach a conclusion....
WHAT? I don't care what your position on the issue, that is a CRIME!!!!
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While on the topic of extinguishing life:
"Texas prepares to execute 500th inmate by lethal injection; Far more than in rest of country, but pace may slow" by Michael Graczyk | Associated Press, June 26, 2013
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The reality of capital punishment in the United States today: While some states have halted the practice in recent years because of concern about wrongful convictions, executions continue at a steady pace in many others.
The death penalty is on the books in 32 states. On average, Texas executes an inmate about every three weeks....
Texas has accounted for nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions carried out since murderer Gary Gilmore went before a Utah firing squad in 1977 and became the first US inmate executed following the Supreme Court’s clarification of death penalty laws....
A 2012 poll from the Texas Tribune and the University of Texas showed only 21 percent opposed to capital punishment....
I'm opposed because you can't correct mistakes, and there is already enough slaughter through wars. I suppose certain exceptions could be made for war criminals and bank looters. I wouldn't stand in the way anyway.
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