What Would Tami Taylor Do About the Second Special Session in Texas?
Today, Texas Governor Rick Perry calls the state legislature back into session in an attempt to pass the sweeping abortion restrictions that were blocked last Tuesday by the efforts (“the unprecedented anarchy,” in Perry’s words) of Wendy Davis and other Texas Democrats. With 100 state troopers called in to control them, thousands of Texas women have rallied at the capitol to protest. Because this is a 30-day session, the abortion bill cannot be filibustered, and Perry has vowed that it will pass.
“They’ll probably be a little bit smarter about how they try to move this bill in this next session starting on Monday,” Davis said to Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation last week. “But what they now have to confront is that the eyes of Texas, the eyes of the country are watching. And they are going to be held accountable for the decisions that they make in this process.”
In a lovely show of support, national role model Connie Britton has partnered with Planned Parenthood to commission a T-shirt asking “What Would Tami Taylor Do?” The back of the shirt, which is available in all colors of the rainbow, gives the answer: she’d stand with Texas women. Previously, Britton voiced her support for reproductive rights in an op-ed criticizing Mitt Romney’s use of the Friday Night Lights slogan in his 2012 campaign:
Brian “Smash” Williams’ mom worked [at Planned Parenthood], Tami got a pregnancy test there, and, after being abandoned by her parents, Becky Sproles was able to get a safe and legal abortion there. So as women, let’s take “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” back and use it as it was always intended: as a motivator for progress, power, and greatness.
You can view the live feed from Austin here if you are interested, or send a message to lawmakers, or read an eloquent essay at the Rumpus about last week’s filibuster and the bodies that matter in Texas:
Our bodies are intractable, inescapable realities, and so little about them has to do with choice. I cannot choose whether to be hungry or thirsty, healthy or sick. A slave cannot choose to be free, a woman cannot choose to be equal, and no one on earth can choose to be safe from the violations others inflict on their bodies.
Related: newly passed, severe and unpopular abortion restrictions in Ohio.