A woman is free to do anything ridiculous (or otherwise) she wants to do to her body.   But she should not be free to do anything she wants to other bodies.

 

Tampons, bottles urine and feces removed from protesters as Texas senate  gathers to vote on measure to toughen up abortion laws

• Bill will restrict access and time frame for  abortions
• Activists for both sides gather to make  their voices heard

  By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:23:36 EST, 12 July  2013| UPDATED:04:55 EST,  13 July 2013

The Texas Senate has given its initial  approval for sweeping abortion restrictions late on Friday, sending them to  Republican Governor Rick Perry to sign into law after weeks of protests and  rallies that drew thousands of people to the Capitol and made the state the  focus of the national abortion debate.

Republicans used their large majority in the  Texas Legislature to pass the Bill nearly three weeks after a filibuster by  Democratic Senator Wendy Davis and an outburst by abortion-rights activists in  the Senate gallery disrupted a deadline vote on June 25.

As protesters came to the Capitol building in  Austin on Friday, bottles of urine and feces, and even tampons were confiscated  by state troopers as they tried to prevent anything from disrupting the  debate.

 

Democrats, who have called the proposal  unnecessary and unconstitutional, sought to enter into the legislative record  material that could help in a court battle.

According to NBC  News, Governor Perry lauded lawmakers  who 'tirelessly defended our smallest and most vulnerable Texans and future  Texans', and said the legislation showed the state's commitment to protect  women's health.

The Senate's debate took place between a  packed gallery of demonstrators, with anti-abortion activists wearing blue and  abortion-rights supporters wearing orange.

Those attending the debate were searched, and  any item that could potentially be thrown from the gallery, including tampons,  were confiscated, according to the Washington  Post.

A senator later stopped security officials  confiscating tampons, calling the move 'bone headed'.

However, Texas Department of Public Safety  officers were reported to have found one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars  suspected of holding feces and three jars suspected to contain  paint.

Four women who tried to chain themselves to a  railing in the gallery were also arrested and a ten-minute break had to be  called when another woman managed to chain herself to the railing.

The Senate's leader, Lieutenant Governor  David Dewhurst told officers to remove a group of protesters who started  chanting 'Give choice a chance' as the debate resumed.

 

 

Outside the chamber, the crowd grew so loud  that troopers were being issued earplugs, as protesters shouted 'Shame! Shame!  Shame!' as senators gave their closing  statements.

The Senate's approval would send the bill to  Republican Governor Rick Perry, who has said he will sign it.

The circus-like atmosphere in the Texas  Capitol marked the culmination of weeks of protests, the most dramatic of which  came on June 25 in the final minutes of the last special legislative session,  when a Democratic filibuster and subsequent protest prevented the Bill from  becoming law.

House Bill 2 would require doctors to have  admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, allow abortions only in surgical  centers, limit where and when women may take abortion-inducing pills, and ban  abortions after 20 weeks.

Only five out of 42 existing abortion clinics  meet the requirements to be a surgical center, and clinic owners have said that  they cannot afford to upgrade or relocate.

Senator Glenn Hegar, the Bill's Republican  author, argued that all abortions, including those induced with medications,  should take place in an ambulatory surgical center in case of  complications.

 

Democrats pointed out that childbirth is more  dangerous than an abortion and there have been no serious  problems with women taking abortion drugs at home.

They introduced amendments to add  exceptions  for cases of rape and incest and to remove some of the more  restrictive  clauses, but Republicans dismissed all of the proposed  changes.

Earlier, Senator Royce West, a Dallas  Democrat, asked why Mr Hegar was pushing restrictions that federal  courts in  other states had suspended as possibly unconstitutional.

'There will be a lawsuit. I promise you,' Mr  West said, raising his right hand as if taking an oath.

The Bill mirrors restrictions passed in  Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, Wisconsin and Arizona.

In North Carolina, lawmakers are considering  a measure that would allow state health officials to apply standards for  ambulatory surgical centers to abortion clinics.

Passing the law in Texas would be a major  victory for anti-abortion activists in the nation's second most-populous state.

Mr Hegar acknowledged working with  anti-abortion groups to draft the legislation.

A lawsuit originating in Texas would also  likely win a sympathetic hearing at the conservative 5th Circuit Court of  Appeals on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Senator John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat,  said it was clear the Bill was part of national conservative agenda attempting  to ban abortion and infringe on women's rights one state at a time.

He pressed Mr Hegar on why the Texas Medical  Association, Texas Hospital Association and the American College of Obstetrics  and Gynecology opposed the Bill.

'There are differences in the medical  profession,' Mr Hegar said, 'I don't believe this legislation will majorly  impede the doctor-patient relationship.'

Senator Bob Deuell, a Greenville Republican  and doctor, defended the Bill, saying abortion clinics 'had not maintained the  proper standard of care'.

Mr Dewhurst was determined to keep the vote  on track. The Texas Constitution gives him the authority to jail anyone who  breaks the chamber's rules of decorum, which stipulate that there can be no  demonstrations or attempts to disrupt the Senate's work.

In addition to the jars of suspected urine  and feces, officers took paint, glitter, confetti and feminine hygiene products  from people wanting to sit in the gallery, according to the Department of Public  Safety.

The debate has been simmering for months in  Texas.

Democrats successfully blocked the Bill in  the regular legislative session. Then, during the first special session, the  Senate did not take up the bill until the final day.

That allowed Fort Worth Senator Wendy Davis  to use a filibuster to delay a vote. When Republicans rushed to try to pass the  Bill in the session's final 15 minutes, angry protesters began shouting and  screaming from the gallery.

Mr Dewhurst could only watch with frustration  as a half-dozen state troopers tried to remove more than 450 people.

Democrats see in the protests an opportunity  that could help them break a 20-year statewide losing streak. They believe  Republicans have overreached in trying to appease their base and alienated  suburban women, a constituency that helped President Obama win  re-election.

'In the long run, all they have done is built  a committed group of people across this state who are outraged about the  treatment of women and the lengths to which this Legislature will go to take  women's healthcare away,' Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, told  The Associated Press.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362499/Texas-senate-votes-pass-measure-toughen-abortion-laws.html#ixzz2Ywvg1ITi

At least they didn'tmake it to the  "Brown Shirts" classification, or is this the beginning?