Obdigore, on 26 June 2013 - 07:28 AM, said:
SB5 in Texas will shut down 47 of the 52 abortion clinics in the state, because their hallways are too narrow or they don't have every doctor on staff ALSO working at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.
Its an attempt by the GOP to get around the Roe v Wade ruling and make abortions unable to happen without specifically outlawing it, which they cannot do since federal trumps state.
So the GOP majority in Texas' Congress called a special session that, according to the Texas Constitution, cannot go over into another day, which means they have to be done at 11:59pm, CST.
One democratic senator decided to filibuster the bill, which would make it essentially 'time out' so there wouldn't be a vote on it. She was warned once for leaning on a desk, once for having a fellow senator help her put a back brace on, and then she received her final warning which caused the end of the filibuster because the GOP Speaker decided that her talking about the 'morning after pill' was off-topic. At that point there was about 10 minutes left before the end of the session, and the public watching the session starting making so much noise nothing could be heard on the floor of the senate. The GOP claims they took a vote at 11:59pm, the 'official vote tally' reads 12:03am, they are currently in a special closed door meeting to decide if it was legal under Texas' constitution or not.
In slightly different news, the woman who created and pushed the bill also claimed that woman can't get pregnant when raped because 'hospitals have these things called rape kits that clean you out'. A real shining example of the GOP working hard for its constituants there.
This whole thing really illustrates the incredible stupidity of the American political system. Not even getting into the nature of the bill itself, but that one can be called on technicalities by the Speaker (who, being in theory unbiased, but in practice no doubt favours their own party) like
leaning on a desk or getting help putting a back brace on because
you are standing up for 13 hours straight never mind what is the most technical of "off-topic" calls to make...what the hell sort of a system is set up like this? :S