Hundreds Of Texans Stand Up Against Sweeping Anti-Abortion Bill, Block It From Coming To A Vote

Submitted by JAC on Fri, 06/21/2013 - 12:00am

While Texas becomes the latest state to try to force through an onmibus anti-abortion bill, over 700 protestors swarmed the capitol and blocked the bill from coming to a vote.

Texas lawmakers are currently rushing an omnibus anti-abortion bill through a special session, after each of its provisions failed to advance separately during the regular legislative session. But not without being met with a fight. Over 700 Texans traveled to Austin on Thursday to testify against the anti-abortion measure before it could come to a vote in the House — and their “people’s filibuster” successfully prevented the legislation from advancing.

SB 5 combines several attacks on reproductive access into one measure, and would ultimately force over over 40 abortion clinics across the Lone Star state to close their doors. After the Texas Senate passed SB 5 on Tuesday, a House committee took it up for consideration. Anti-abortion opponents were reportedly discouraged from testifying in favor of the measure before the House vote, in case the legislature runs out of time to approve it before the special session concludes on June 25.

But opponents of SB 5 took the opposite approach, organizing hundreds of women’s health advocates to share their testimony in front of the House committee in the hopes of delaying the vote. An estimated 700 people registered to testify. Some protesters waited up to 12 hours to speak against SB 5, and supporters from across Texas ordered pizza, cookies, and drinks to be delivered to them throughout the night on Thursday.

In the early hours of the morning on Friday, after nearly seven hours of testimony, the Republican chairman of the House committee told more than 300 people who were still waiting in line that they would not be allowed to speak.