Texas Republicans on verge of passing abortion law
Source: Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature pushed Monday to enact wide-ranging restrictions that would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in the nation's second most-populous state, and Democrats planned an old-fashioned marathon filibuster to stop the final vote.
After the House easily approved it Monday morning, the wide-ranging package of anti-abortion measures was headed to the Senate. But with the special session scheduled to end at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, the clock presented a far bigger obstacle than the votes to win approval there.
Although Texas is just the latest of several conservative states to try to enact tough limits on abortions, the scope of its effort is notable both because of the combination of bills being considered and the size of the state. The proposal would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, limit abortions to surgical centers and stipulate doctors must monitor even non-surgical abortions.
When combined in a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long and with 26 million people, the measures become the most stringent set of laws to impact the largest number of people in the nation.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-republicans-verge-passing-abortion-193230470.html
The article says a filibustering Democrat must be able to stand there continuously (no potty break allowed, can't even lean on anything) for 13 1/2 hours (unless the Republicans move the vote up even earlier which would extend the required filibustering time).
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's a power trip, to get "Da little woman back in da kitchen and preggers." 
is that if states pass laws that contradict federal law... someone will take it to court... it will end up in the Supreme Court and given the conservative make-up presently... some think Roe v Wade can be overturned 
It's not that the right to an abortion is being taken away. It's that a series of limitations are being placed that will make it extremely difficult for pregnant women to obtain an abortion.
Senate Bill 5 contains the following restrictions:
The first requirement of the bill is for all abortions to take place in surgical centers, facilities designed to cope with major surgeries that could lead to life-threatening complications. The majority of abortions are not surgical procedures, and 37 of the state's 42 abortion clinics don't meet that new standard, so many would need to relocate and spend millions of dollars to reach it. The new standards affect the actual facilities such as ventilation systems that have little impact regarding safety for the pregnant woman.
Those five remaining clinics are in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and two in Houston. A woman living along the Mexico border or in West Texas would have to drive hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion if the law passes. In addition, due to the restrictions already in place which require the woman to have an initial consultation, sonogram and propaganda brainwashing, the 24 hour wait for the actual procedure, and a follow-up consultation within 14 days to verify that the pregnancy is terminated by the use of an abortion-inducing drug such as RU-486 it would require three separate visits on three different days to fulfill the requirements. The restrictions would add somewhere between $250 to $500 in travel and hotel expenses to the cost for the woman. Many of the women are low-income or unemployed due to their age so significant obstacles are being added to the process as a disincentive.
Women who may currently take abortion-inducing pills (e.g., RU-486) at home would also be required to take those medications in front of the doctor by making visits to the surgical center under the bill.
Abortion doctors also would need to obtain admitting privileges within 30 miles of the clinic under the measure.
The small bit of positive news is that Senator Wendy Davis is planning to filibuster the bill later today. She will have to speak for about 13 hours to complete the filibuster before the special session expires at midnight. During those 13 hours, Senator Davis will not be allowed restroom breaks or to even lean on the podium without having a parliamentary inquiry arise that could stop the filibuster--what is ironic about all that is last night when amendments were offered in the Texas House, the sponsor of the House version (Jodie Laubenberg) did not even have to return to the microphone to answer any questions during the debate--she merely had to tell the House Chair to table each amendment after 15 minutes of debate! I believe that only 14 out of 40 amendments were debated before the House Republicans closed the debate process so most of the amendments were never discussed.
So if Senator Davis is successful in her filibuster then the clock will run out on the 30 day special session. The session was called by Governor Perry and he is the only one that can designate the bills to be considered during the special session. This special session started out on a redistricting bill which has passed both the House and the Senate so that bill awaits the governor's signature. Perry also added bills relating to transportation infrastructure, closing a loophole concerning the death penalty for 17 year olds, and there were actually three abortion bills being considered. Two of the abortion bills have already died due to the time constraints. However, if Senator Davis succeeds in her filibuster then the transportation bill and the death penalty bill will also be killed since they are on the calendar after the abortion bill. The Republicans actually screwed up several times pushing all of the bills through the calendar process during the last two weeks which is why it looks like the stall tactics of the Democrats will hopefully work this time.
The question then becomes whether the governor will call another 30 day special session to reintroduce the abortion bills along with the transportation and death penalty bills. The original redistricting bill was a priority item to keep the state gerrymandered, but these other bills aren't really priorities in the eyes of most Texans--if anything, the transportation bill is something that impacts more Texans than either the death penalty or abortion bills. There is a certain amount of weariness about holding special sessions among legislators and citizens particularly as the temperature cranks up to the 100 degree mark in July and August.
If the governor calls another special session, there is little that Democrats can do to stop the process since the two-thirds rule will be suspended again in the Texas Senate which is held by Republicans 19-12. It was because the Republicans did not hold this super-majority in the Senate as to why the all of the bills considered in the special session were stalled during the 140 day regular session. The estimated cost to taxpayers for each 30-day special session is $1.2 million.
I know this is very long, but I wanted to provide the background as to how this bill was forced into consideration. Look for news tomorrow night after midnight in Texas--I think that makes it after 2 p.m. tomorrow in Japan. We will know if the filibuster holds, but I doubt if there will be any news about another special session. My expectation knowing how Texas government works (and doesn't work) as a former state employee is that the governor will wait a couple days to decide to call another special session. If Perry calls another special session I predict it will start after the July 4 holiday--I'm thinking about July 8 through July 10 so that it can be finished before the start of another school year and also after the SCOTUS issues a decision in the Shelby vs. Alabama case regarding Sectiion 5 of the Voting Rights Act. 
biggest obstacle of all. From the OP article http://news.yahoo.com/texas-republicans-verge-passing-abortion-193230470.html
I suppose Texas might be different since they aren't that big on religion or politics
The Fort Worth Democrat signaled her intentions after the package of abortion restrictions cleared a final House vote and headed toward the Senate. Republican leaders are scrambling to pass Senate Bill 5 before Tuesday's midnight adjournment but acknowledge that a Democratic filibuster could kill the bill.
-snip-
Davis confirmed that she informed Dewhurst of her filibuster plans shortly after House passage of the bill. Dewhurst told Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, in a letter that Davis advised him “that she is going to filibuster SB5.”
-snip-
She'll do good!
They carried a livestream and a blog on Sunday night and Monday morning during the House debate so I bet they'll have it going again later today. You might want to read my earlier comments to obtain some background. If you have any questions let me know since I'm keeping up with things. I hope that Wendy Davis remembers the basics of using the bathroom before she starts speaking, bringing water to drink, having something sweet to keep up her blood sugar up, having one of those five-hour energy drink for the evening portion of the filibuster and wearing a colostomy bag and Depends for backup purposes.
For the people still at the Capitol at 12:01 on Wednesday--stay the hell out of her way because I imagine she won't want anyone to squeeze and hug her! 
