Wendy Davis’s Filibuster was a speech against Texas Senate Bill Five, shortened to SB5, given by Texas Senator Wendy Davis. Said bill would have crippled most abortion clinics in Texas, and Rick Perry had announced that if the bill was passed, he would personally sign it for approval.
Origins
On Tuesday the 26th of June, there was a hearing on the passing of Texas Senate Bill Five, otherwise known as SB5. It was created as an act against abortions, by including the banning of abortions on women who are over 20 weeks into gestation, making doctors have to have the rights to practice in nearby hospitals, and turning abortion clinics into ambulatory surgical centers. According to law, if someone speaks against said bill until midnight, the bill will have to be proposed in the next meet, which happens 2 years later. This prompted politician Wendy Davis to hold a filibuster against the bill from 11 AM to 12 PM. Wendy, during the filibuster, took in stories from Twitter about other people’s abortions, and read them aloud to the crowd. The filibuster was broadcasted live on Youtube, and nearing the end of the filibuster, the broadcast reached over 180,000 views. President Barack Obama watched the filibuster, and he said that he supported Wendy’s speech.
Wendy, during the Filibuster.
During the filibuster, fellow senator Leticia Van de Putte, who could not be at the event in the beginning due to the funeral of her father who died in a car crash, delivered the quote, “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?” This quote has since been constantly retweeted and posted on Tumblr, and as some viewers of the filibuster said it, the quote might become a famous quote in the near future.
10 hours into the filibuster, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst ruled that Wendy had gone off topic, causing an uproar in the crowd watching the filibuster, which can be seen in the video embedded above. The crowd cheered “Let her speak” over and over, prompting Dewhurst to retract the comment and the filibuster to go on. Despite efforts by the Republican side, the filibuster eventually marched beyond midnight, as required to cause the bill to be proposed two years later. Even then, there was an uproar when the senate voted after midnight and said the bill had passed. However, as voting beyond midnight was illegal, David Dewhurst announced that the bill was officially dead.
During the middle of the filibuster, Twitter and Tumblr exploded with posts regarding Wendy’s speech and the bill itself. As the bill was restricted, there was an increase in posts that celebrated the fact that the bill was not passed.
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