Just hours after pro-choice advocates and lawmakers defeated a bill that would have shut down nearly all abortion clinics in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry announced he is reviving the bill by calling another special session of the legislature on July 1. "I am calling the legislature back into session because too much important work remains undone for the people of Texas," Perry said.
"Texans value life and want to protect women and the unborn." Perry’s move could overrule the efforts of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, who led a filibuster that lasted nearly 11 hours before Republicans cut her off. That was when her colleagues and the protesters in the gallery took over. Democrats raised objections, and protesters raised their voices, drowning out the proceedings in the final minutes before the session officially ended at midnight. Republicans claimed they had passed the bill anyway, but Lieutenant Gov. David Dewhurst finally conceded the vote had come too late, blaming what he called an "unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics." Those who were on the ground prefer to call it "a people’s filibuster."
Democracy Now was joined by Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, who was there to announce Wednesday’s victory in the Capitol rotunda, which holds a portrait of her mother, the late Texas Governor Ann Richards, another staunch advocate for women’s rights. "This is the most extreme bill I know that we’re fighting in the country," Richards says. "[Gov. Perry] is putting his own political agenda ahead of the women of Texas."
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