Texas Feminists Make History!

It was a historic day—and night, and day again—for abortion rights in Texas yesterday.

In a special legislative session, Texas Gov. Rick Perry tried to shove through an oppressive anti-abortion law, SB 5, that could have shut down all but five abortion clinics in the huge state. But state Sen. Wendy Davis wasn’t having it, and neither were the thousands and thousands of women and others who supported her.

Davis, wearing pink tennis shoes (we like to think of them as “radical raspberry”) and a back brace, stood up for nearly 11 hours in a one-woman filibuster against the bill. Everything she said had to be germane to the debate—she couldn’t just read from a phonebook. As the midnight deadline for passing the bill approaches, hundreds of protesters in the gallery cheered wildly, interrupting the proceedings as Republican anti-abortion lawmakers finally took a vote. AP—one of the few mainstream news outlets to even cover the amazing event—reported, incorrectly, that the bill had passed. But three hours later, Lieutenant Gov. David Dewhurst admitted that the vote had not followed proper procedures and was thus voided. He blamed the situation on an “unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics.” We call that women speaking up for their rights!

It was a huge we’re-not-going-to-take-it-any-more victory for reproductive health care; finally, women’s voices were heard! Not only were hundreds of Texas women demonstrating their opposition to the legislation—lined up from the rotunda on the bottom floor of the Capitol to the third floor where the Senate was—but a hundred thousand people were watching the filibuster live, thanks to a feed from the The Texas Tribune. Twitter and other social media gave a huge boost to those opposing Perry and the legislature’s actions, and even President Obama tweeted out the link to the TV feed, thus boosting the audience numbers.

Significant majorities in the U.S.—including Texas—want access to safe abortion. Perry and the Texas legislature—in which 4 of 5 members are men—are completely out of step. And with women speaking out loudly against the latest War on Women piece of legislation, it should be harder and harder to get such legislation passed. Today’s victory is surely a sign of things to come. Woe to Gov. Perry if he tries to resurrect this anti-woman bill; feminists are ready and in a fighting spirit!

We applaud Sen. Davis, the “unruly” women in Austin and feminists around the country who are mad as hell and don’t want to take this repressive attempt to control our bodies and our health any more. Together, we can continue to make a powerful noise, not just in Texas but around the nation!

 

Photo of protester at Texas State Capitol during SB 5 filibuster by Flickr user Ann Harkness under license from Creative Commons 2.0

About

Katherine Spillar is the executive director of Feminist Majority Foundation and executive editor of Ms., where she oversees editorial content and the Ms. in the Classroom program.