Texas lawmakers ordered to try again on abortion
AUSTIN, Texas — After a one-woman filibuster and a raucous crowd helped derail a GOP-led effort to restrict Texas abortions, Gov. Rick Perry announced Wednesday that he is calling lawmakers back next week to try again.
Perry ordered the Legislature to meet Monday to start 30 more days of work. Like the first special session, which ended in chaos overnight, the second one will have on its agenda a Republican-backed plan that critics say would close nearly every abortion clinic in the state and impose other limits on the procedure.
“I am calling the Legislature back into session because too much important work remains undone for the people of Texas,” Perry said in a statement. “Texans value life and want to protect women and the unborn.”
The first session’s debate over abortion restrictions led to the most chaotic day in the Texas Legislature in modern history, starting with a filibuster by Sen. Wendy Davis and ending with a downto-the wire, frenetic vote marked by questions about whether Republicans tried to break chamber rules and jam the measure through.
A second filibuster is harder to pull off because supporters of the bill will ensure that it clears preliminary hurdles and reaches floor votes in the House and Senate well before the second session ends.
The governor can convene as many extra sessions as he likes and sets the agenda of what lawmakers can work on. Also listed on the session’s agenda are separate bills to boost highway funding and deal with a juvenile justice issue.
Many of the same abortion rights groups that staged Tuesday night’s protests took to Twitter on Wednesday, promising they had more in store.
The entire process starts over, with bills that must be filed by individual lawmakers, undergo a public hearing and be passed out of committee before they can be considered by both chambers.
Supporters are likely to draft a measure similar to the one that nearly passed in the first session. It sought a statewide ban on the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the point at which abortion foes — despite a lack of scientific evidence — say a fetus can feel pain.