Texas Senate - Davis continues filibuster to stop abortion bill

[sfrlz]

Before a packed chamber and gallery, state Sen. Wendy Davis began a dramatic filibuster Tuesday morning designed to block passage of a controversial and politically charged anti-abortion bill.

Because the special legislative session will end at midnight, the Fort Worth Democrat could succeed if she continues talking on Senate Bill 5 without

Comments

[idemandjustice]

She can't even lean on the desk? Ouch! I wish her the best of luck, though. I really want her to succeed here.

[nesmith]

“Abortions disproportionately affect African-Americans, and I see all these white women here opposing this (bill),” he told reporters outside the gallery. “They are killing innocent lives. Someone needs to say that. That’s why I am here.”

And of course it's a MAN trying to talk over women. Dude, sit the fuck down--you have NO GODDAMN SAY.

[moonshaz]

Ikr? Afaic, anyone who is not the owner of a uterus needs to stfd and stfu when it comes to ANYTHING related to abortion.

The very idea that poor helpless females need to have a MAN to watch out for their "welfare" is incredibly offensive. Especially when it's obviously a front for trying to make abortion as difficult as possible.

What I would like to do to Mike Bradford of Austin:

[nesmith]

Seriously. I'm quite sure African American women are more than capable of speaking their own minds without needing some man who will NEVER have to make that decision for himself to talk over them.

And that is one amazing takedown.

[gambitia]

“Abortions disproportionately affect African-Americans, and I see all these white women here opposing this (bill),” he told reporters outside the gallery. “They are killing innocent lives. Someone needs to say that. That’s why I am here.”

(a) You're a guy
(b) (potentially true*) statement about more African-American women getting abortions does not lead to "ban abortions!" It leads to investigation about why African-American women get a disproportionate number of abortions. There may indeed be genocidal implications in those reasons--but that still is not an indictment of abortion itself, but rather the processes and people that are encouraging African-American women to get abortions and white women not to get them. You are not empowering these women by taking their choices away.

*I dun feel like looking up the stats to see if his claim is true or not

[alryssa]

All I can think wrt/(b) is that awful fucking ad campaign some anti-abortion group funded a while back that linked Black women having abortions to racial genocide.

[sixdemonhag]

Oh yeah, I hear that all the time from the anti choicers I go round and round with. Margaret Sanger was a big ol' racist and eugenicist and Planned Parenthood is some massive scheme to kill black people. Like they give a shit about black people to begin with.

[ladyofshalott06]

Damn, you go Wendy Davis! "Fort Worth Democrat" are three words I rarely see strung together. I really hope she succeeds!

[bethan_b_bad]

I've had the livestream going to a couple of hours now, and I want SO BADLY to cheer her.

As a Brit, can someone explain to me how the GOP could potentially stop the filibuster even if she doesn't yield the floor? They seemed to be implying they would...

[idemandjustice]

They would just need to get 60 votes to end it, I think.

[bethan_b_bad]

But how can they vote if she doesn't cede the floor? *confuse*

[layweed]

Here's a link explaining the rules of a fillibuster in the Texas Senate: http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/25/texplainer-what-are-rules-filibuster/