A battle over a bill to limit abortion in Texas has gained national notoriety.  Since I live in Texas, I thought I’d describe what’s been going on in Austin.

The pro-life bill was bottled up until the waning days of a special legislative session. The legislation does four things that protect the unborn and their mothers:

First, it requires abortion facilities to meet the requirements of ambulatory surgical facilities – a no brainer especially after revelations of conditions at the Gosnell clinic in Philly.

Secondly, the bill requires that all physicians performing abortions have admitting privileges to a hospital within a 30-mile radius of the abortion facility. For emergencies.

Third, the bill prohibits abortions at 20 weeks or more after fertilization, based on the growing body of research showing that the unborn baby can feel pain at this stage.

And fourthly, the bill requires that RU-486, the abortion drug, must be used in accordance with FDA standards. This is to prevent some dangerous corner-cutting that’s been taking place.

Before the bill passed the Texas Senate, the Republican caucus removed the post-20-week ban.

The bill then went to the House, and a raucous committee process in which overflow rooms were needed to hold hundreds of Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion folks, vastly outnumbering pro-lifers. Testimony on the fetal pain portion of the bill went on until 3:30 in the morning. The House passed the bill, putting the post-20 week ban back in.

Now the legislation had to be reconciled with the Senate version that did not contain the ban. On the last day of the session, now-famous State Senator Wendy Davis, complete with catheter and “rouge red sneakers,” began an 11-hour filibuster against the bill. She aimed to speak until midnight, which would have been the end of the session — and the bill. The crowds were large, growing, and abnormally rude and unruly.

To force the end of a filibuster a senator must be deemed guilty of three violations, which usually consist of going off-topic. Senator Davis committed her third violation just in time to get the vote in, but by then the crowds were yelling and screaming.
Pro-abortion House members entered the Senate chambers and joined some of the senators in encouraging the crowds. Amidst the chaos, a vote occurred. The bill passed, but was not finalized until three minutes after midnight, and was therefore invalid.

We learned later that paid  “Occupy” protesters and the International Socialist Organization had moved into Texas for the protest.

Governor Rick Perry, having promised to sign this bill, was not about to allow mob rule in Texas. That very day he announced another special session. The legislative process is moving forward, still drawing huge crowds.

Texas will get the post-20 week ban, which has already passed in 12 other states. Wendy Davis is staying out of it this time.  But she’s become hero to the Left — a rock star for protecting the right to subject a late term baby to what amounts to a violent and painful death. That’s the real ‘war on women.’