Armed with her pink tennis shoes and a back brace, Democrat Sen. Wendy Davis stood at her desk for 11 hours to filibuster a bill that would essentially close nearly all abortion clinics in Texas.
Under SB-5, abortions carried out after 20 weeks of pregnancy would be illegal, and abortion clinics would be required to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. Many abortion clinics, especially those in rural areas, would have been unable to upgrade and thus been forced to shut down.
Davis’ one-woman filibuster began at 11:18AM CDT on Tuesday. She needed to stand and speak for almost 13 hours continuously without sitting or taking a break in order to stall voting procedures past the midnight mark.
Her filibuster was cut just short at 10:03PM CDT when Republican Sen. Donna Campbell called a third point of order, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst ruled that Davis’ speech on a 2011 sonogram bill was straying off-topic.
Protestors and fans of Davis then took control of the floor, shouting and disrupting proceedings from 11:45PM to past midnight when voting procedures were supposed to have taken place. While the vote did take place with a 19-10 result in favor of SB-5, it was ruled too late, meaning that the bill will not make its way to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Though her filibuster was cut short, Davis was nevertheless greeted with a cheering crowd when she left the floor.
“Today was democracy in action,” she said. “You all are the voices we were speaking for from the floor.”