The events in Texas Senate last night were tragic, and shameful. Some on both sides held sincere opinions. At least a few on both sides voted along merely party lines. Beyond those two statements, I’m through being even-handed.
SB5 would have banned late-term abortions (beyond 20 weeks, when the child is understood to feel the pain of her destruction), and also included some regulations aimed at protecting the health of mothers. The House approved it, and the Senate had the votes to approve it. After Fort Worth Sen. Wendy Davis failed in her effort to maintain a 13-hour filibuster, the Senate had two hours to actually vote. At that point, leftists misused parliamentary inquiries to run down the clock. When this failed, liberals rallied the gallery to yell so loudly, for 20 minutes, that business could not be completed. You could clearly see a group of senators leading the gallery in this disruption. It was a hijacking of the legal process and should result in censure of those senators.
It was disgusting, and a behavior that will bite the minority back at a time not of their choosing. A few things are true about this episode:
- Most Texans favored the fetal pain bill
- Some pro-abortion supporters have a financial stake in keeping all abortions at all stages legal
- The pro-life movement has far fewer employees and does not produce millionaires
- Sen. Wendy Davis does not represent the people who live in Fort Worth
- Sen. Kirk Watson and Sen. Judith Zaffirini should lose their seats for abusing procedure
Perhaps there will be a special session to take up this bill and two others left on the agenda. At that point, the whole circus begins again. It’s the best chance we have for two years to lower the number of children callously killed by abortion in Texas.
I’m not mad at Wendy Davis for her legal attempt at filibuster, although the things she said during her 10-hour talk were hair-raising revelations of the extreme pro-abortion mind. Sen. Davis is both a product and an explanation of God’s judgment on America. I am angry at the hooliganism and cynical abuse of procedure by the minority used to deny a legal vote that would have well represented the people of Texas.
The bill would have saved lives. Some of the people who were blowing horns and shrieking last night to disrupt the Texas Senate knew that and found other facts more important. Lord, help us.