I go to bed thinking the bill passed and wake up to an entirely different reality:
YAHOO NEWS – Despite barely beating a midnight deadline, hundreds of jeering protesters helped stop Texas lawmakers from passing one of the toughest abortion measures in the country.
As the protesters raised the noise to deafening levels in the Texas Senate chamber late Tuesday, Republicans scrambled to gather their colleagues at the podium for a stroke-of-midnight vote on some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country.
…
Initially, Republicans insisted the vote started before the midnight deadline and passed the bill that Democrats spent the day trying to kill. But after official computer records and printouts of the voting record showed the vote took place Wednesday, and then were changed to read Tuesday, senators retreated into a private meeting to reach a conclusion.
At 3 a.m., Dewhurst emerged from the meeting still insisting the 19-10 vote was in time, but said, “with all the ruckus and noise going on, I couldn’t sign the bill” and declared it dead.
He denounced the more than 400 protesters who staged what they called “a people’s filibuster” from 11:45 p.m. to well past midnight. He denied mishandling the debate.
“I didn’t lose control (of the chamber). We had an unruly mob,” Dewhurst said. He even hinted that Gov. Rick Perry may immediately call another 30-day special session, adding: “It’s over. It’s been fun. But see you soon.”
Ugh.
—ORIGINAL POST BELOW—
By all accounts it looks like the Texas Senate has passed a bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks and raises the standards for abortion clinics throughout out the state. It will now head to the desk of Governor Rick Perry to be signed into law:
AP – Texas Republicans have passed new abortion restrictions expected to close almost every abortion clinic in the nation’s second most populous state.
The Republican-controlled House voted for the bill while hundreds of protesters screamed from the gallery. Reporters and Democrats saw the voting begin after midnight, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said it began just before.
Texas’ special legislative session ended at midnight, and Democrats spent most of the day filibustering the bill. Republicans cited rules to eventually force a vote to end the filibuster.
The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and requires that all procedures take place in a surgical center.
Doctors who perform abortions would also need admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. The surgical center requirement would shut down 37 of Texas’ 42 abortion clinics.
A pro-abortion-blogger at Chron described the legislation in a little more detail:
Among other things, SB 5 would prohibit most abortions after 20 weeks and require abortion clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgery centers, the latter of which — at least in the short term — would shutter all but five of the state’s 42 abortion clinics and limit abortions to the state’s four major metro areas (Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio). It also would mandate that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and place greater restrictions on the use of the abortion drug RU-486.
Sounds like a fantastic bill to me. What a victory!
The Democrats are alleging that the vote took place after midnight when the Senate officially went out of session, but based on all the reporting it looks like they are grasping at straws. Nevertheless, they say they will challenge it.