Walter Rhett: Texas Is a Mess

[DemocratsForProgress]

Texas is a mess.

The news of the day over the US Supreme Court’s decision will drown out the trench warfare witnessed at the same time in Texas, as its Senate, with only 31 members, debated and fought over the status of abortion in the nation’s second largest state.

I spent four hours Tuesday afternoon and early evening listening to Fort Worth Democratic Senator Wendy Davis hold the floor as she filibustered to block a vote on Texas bill SB5 (Senate Bill 5) whose provisions would create requirements that would be difficult to meet for clinics and providers of abortion services, and effectively make doctors unavailable, force clinics to close, and put requirements on women that would restrict their access to legal abortions.

When asked by a fellow Democratic senator to confirm whether passage of SB5 “won’t limit abortions, only the legal ones,” Sen. Davis added: “and the safe ones.”

Limited, legal, or safe abortions made no difference to Texas’ Republican senators whose collective strategy it was to challenge Sen. Wendy Davis on points of order as she spoke. Texas Senate Rule 403 requires the speaker on the floor to confine remarks to the bill; comments must be “germane” to the legislation. Two warnings can be given, if the Presiding Officer of the Senate finds, after a challenge, the remarks have not been germane. After a successful third challenge, the Senate may vote on the right of the speaker to continue...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2013/06/26/texas-is-a-mess/