It's one thing to complain about the war on women's reproduction rights in the US.
It's another thing to fight it. That's exactly what Wendy Davis did last night.
She was raised by a single mother after her parents divorced.
She started working at age 14 to help support her family.
She was married at age 18, became a mother at age 19 and was divorced the following year.
As a single mother, she put herself through college, graduating first from TCU.
She then did the same thing again, except this time, it was Harvard Law School.
After graduating, she clerked, litigated and spent time in the title insurance business before starting her own practice. She spent nine years on the Fort Worth City Council before being elected to the state senate in 2008.
She's been know to fight before -- filibustering a budget bill that cut $4B from public education in Texas. Guess what? The $4B got restored to Texas classrooms.
After graduating, she clerked, litigated and spent time in the title insurance business before starting her own practice. She spent nine years on the Fort Worth City Council before being elected to the state senate in 2008.
She's been know to fight before -- filibustering a budget bill that cut $4B from public education in Texas. Guess what? The $4B got restored to Texas classrooms.
Okay, okay. She's got an impressive CV.
So, where does her fight for reproductive rights come in?
Well, here's a little history lesson on what's been going on in Texas (thanks, Rick Perry). Texas has the 4th highest teen pregnancy rate in the United States; it also has the 2nd highest population, which means there are A LOT of teen moms (like Wendy Davis). In fact, 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, of which half of those result in abortion.
Texas is a conservative state where abortion is a very sensitive subject. I think that's fine. No woman wants to have an abortion, regardless if she is "pro choice" or "pro life."
Based on these facts, any logical person would conclude:
- Let's have less abortions! (they are sad)
- How does that happen? More birth control! (people will have sex, regardless if they wear a promise ring)
Well, Rick Perry is not very logical.
Over the past 2 years, Texas has slashed family planning by 2/3s, closing down 50+ clinics. The Texas Health Commission expects these slashes to result in 24K unplanned pregnancies, costing taxpayers $273M, partially because 33% of child-bearing aged women do not have health insurance.
Contrary to popular belief, Planned Parent is NOT an abortion factory. Only 3% of their services are abortion services; the rest goes to cancer prevention and contraception (remember, my "let's have less abortions!" point?). Plus, 0% of the Planned Parenthood facilities closed down in Texas actually performed abortions.
Basically, it sucks to be a child-bearing aged women without health insurance in Texas.
Contrary to popular belief, Planned Parent is NOT an abortion factory. Only 3% of their services are abortion services; the rest goes to cancer prevention and contraception (remember, my "let's have less abortions!" point?). Plus, 0% of the Planned Parenthood facilities closed down in Texas actually performed abortions.
Basically, it sucks to be a child-bearing aged women without health insurance in Texas.
Okay, so was Wendy Davis fighting these budget cuts?
No, she spent 11 hours filibustering the Senate Bill 5, which would outlaw abortions past 20 weeks. On the outside, the bill doesn't seem that bad -- 20 weeks sounds long enough, right?
Well, here's some issues with the bill:
- Due to the bill's restrictions, only 5 abortion clinics would still exist in the state of Texas. Abortions are sad. You know what else is sad? Women going to Mexico to get abortions. Women going to a back-alley clinic to get an abortion. Women performing "DIY procedures" at home (check out Revolutionary Road or Gerri Santoro)
- Some women need abortions past 20 weeks for fetal or maternal health reasons (6% of abortions in the US)
- Some women don't actually know their pregnant at 20 weeks, as crazy as that might sound. These women are also the ones that will have the hardest time supporting a baby (see the NYTimes article here)
So, how'd the fight end?
Time ran out, and Wendy won. It's was a tough 11 hours -- she got two strikes for putting on a back brace and going "off topic" about Planned Parenthood cuts.
Unfortunately, the fight is not over. Perry is calling lawmakers back to work on the bill.
He said, "We will not allow the breakdown of decorum and decency to prevent us from doing what the people of this state hired us to do."
Maybe he should ask more women about what the state hired him to do.
PS - Doesn't she look like a bad ass in the photo below?
(Source: Bob Daemmrich)
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