"Slut shaming" reached new heights overnight Friday, as women protesting being stripped of their most personal rights were carried and dragged out in chains from the Texas capitol in Austin.
At least 10 people were arrested at the capitol in Austin Friday night during protests of the controversial abortion bill debated by the Texas Senate. The protestors appeared to be dressed as women who had experienced abortions, wearing white clothing stained with "blood." Others who protested against the bill wore orange t-shirts, while extremist religious zealots wore blue t-shirts.
State troopers carried, and violently dragged protesters who were against the legislative attack on women from the building, with some reports indicating that tasers were used as well.
This photo shows a demonstrator bleeding on floor after an alleged attack by state troopers left him unconscious, medics were said to have been summoned:
The Texas Senate voted 19-11 early Saturday to pass sweeping restrictions on abortions, after a weeks-long standoff over women's rights in the state. Although the old, white men in the Texas legislature refer to it as "protecting" both women and fetuses.
House Bill 2 would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, allow abortions only in surgical centers, limit where and when women may take abortion-inducing pills and ban abortions after 20 weeks. Only five out of 42 existing abortion clinics meet the requirements to be a surgical center, and clinic owners say they can't afford to upgrade or relocate.
Mr. Perry applauded lawmakers for passing the bill, saying “Today the Texas Legislature took its final step in our historic effort to keep our women from thinkin' and stuff protect life.” Legislators and anti-abortion activists, he said “tirelessly defended our smallest and most vulnerable Texans and future Texans.”
Just before the vote, Lt.Gov.David Dewhurst thanked both supporters and opponents and “even the press” for being there and asked for everyone “to love each other, as Christ loved the church, as we love all of those unborn babies.”
Failed former Republican Pennsylvania Senator and presidential contender Rick Santorum was on hand for the extremist activities.“I am here because Texas is the center of the pro-life movement right now,” he told the crowd.
Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat, asked why Hegar was pushing restrictions that federal courts in other states had suspended as possibly unconstitutional.
"There will be a lawsuit. I promise you," West said, raising his right hand as if taking an oath.
From The NYT:
"The fight has been heavy with symbols. The House bill’s author, Representative Jodie Laubenberg, a Republican from Parker, dangled a pair of baby shoes before her as she spoke on Tuesday; Representative Senfronia Thompson, who offered an early amendment to the bill, was flanked by colleagues holding wire hangers, representing the brutal abortion methods they said would return if legitimate clinics were run out of business.
Ms. Laubenberg has said that the bill would close no abortion clinics, adding, “It is time these clinics put patients ahead of profits.”
Supporters of the bill in the legislature have been angered by the language of their opponents. During floor debate on Tuesday, Representative Jason Villalba, a Republican of Dallas, said that “I shall stand with Texas women, but I shall stand here no longer and be accused of conducting a ‘war on women’.” He said “we care for and we fight for human baby lives,” and showed a sonogram of his own child at 13 weeks, he said, “I will fight, and I will fight, and I will fight to protect my baby.”
During the Senate debate, the dean of the Senate, John Whitmire, who is a Democrat, angrily told Senator Dan Patrick, a Republican, “I can’t sit here and let you question my faith.”
The bill was opposed by many doctors, including leaders of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Texas Medical Association; the gynecologists’ group has run advertisements locally that question the scientific underpinnings of the legislation and tell legislators to “Get out of our exam rooms.”'
When it comes to most anything, Republicans are not ones to let science or facts stand in their way.
"In the long run, all they have done is built a committed group of people across this state who are outraged about the treatment of women and the lengths to which this Legislature will go to take women's health care away," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.
State Senator Wendy Davis tweeted after the vote, "Some believe this fight is over with this vote tonight, but they're wrong. The fight for the future of Texas is just beginning."
