Around midnight last night, the Texas Senate shutdown Senator Wendy Davis’s (D-Fort Worth) nearly 11 hour filibuster meant to prevent the passage of Senate Bill 5, a restrictive abortion law.
The Republican sponsored bill is one of the toughest in the country. It would prevent abortions after 20 weeks and force the closure of all but five of the state’s 42 abortion clinics because of a requirement that clinics meet the same standards as hospital surgical centers.
Senator Davis was joined by 400 protesters who filled the gallery to support her. When Republicans ended Davis’s filibuster just shy of midnight, the crowd shouted and clapped for twenty minutes.
According to Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, the bill was passed too late. “With all the ruckus and noise going on, I couldn’t sign the bill,” he said. “I didn’t lose control. We had an unruly mob.”
Christy Hoppe, Austin bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, was present for the entire filibuster. She weighs in on the events of last night and what will come of the controversial bill.
James Henson, director of the Texas politics project as the University of Texas, discusses what this will mean for the national political scene and how Rick Perry might move forward on this.