[wendy davis] you know what i do have. I have a Memorabilia Book of the filibuster. And i think it might be one of those up there. I just treasure it, and of course ill be able to pass it down to my granddaughters so they can understand what their bubbe did, and how their bubbe was fighting for them. We put together all of the legal background; the griswold decision, roe v wade, Supreme Court decisions that of course reinforced the fact that women do have the right to choose until a pregnancy is viable. And we prepared to begin that day with all of that data. But here we are still without access to safe Abortion Care in this country. [tense music] [audience cheering] [audience cheering] [tense, suspenseful music] [audience cheering] hello, everyone [audience cheering] im so happy to be here in community with you today. Boy, did i need you, and i know we needed each other, right . Yes. [audience cheering] on september 1st, when senate bill 8 went into effect, this fighter who is standing in front of you, i was at an alltime low. I felt demoralized, defeated, and i know you were probably feeling that way too. I mean, the women Who Marched In The 60s and the 70s, leading to the recognition of the constitutional right to Abortion Care, they probably thought theyd solve that problem for the next generations. [tense music] womens liberation now. Im tired of having half the world tell the other half what they should do with their own body. Sisterhood is powerful. Join us now we stand on the shoulders of those who spent their entire lives getting us to this point. Roe v. Wade was really a case that started here in austin. The decision as to whether or not a particular woman will continue to carry or will terminate a pregnancy is a decision that should be made by that individual. We are the state that brought this country roe v. Wade and we will not be the state that bans abortion. [audience cheering] we have work to do, though. Opponents wasted no time trying to overturn the law. No, no, roe v. Wade has got to go. We have been going backwards in texas. Women are losing their rights instead of gaining them. We say fight back. [audience cheering] these laws are simply about stopping women from accessing their constitutionally protected right to abortion. Whose body, whose choice . My body, my choice. Whose body, whose choice . Weve seen countless attacks on Abortion Access and reproductive justice in our communities. In this state where things have been awfully hard for an awfully long time, its pretty understandable that sometimes weve succumbed to the idea that our voices just dont matter, but we have shown that we have the courage to rise up against what we know to be wrong. On june 25th, 2013, to be exact, you all did something remarkable. And for at least a moment, you understood your own power. [audience cheering] [audience cheering] the power of that day, its had this ripple effect. Watching wendy and the whole filibuster take place, i felt like this connection with her. I think about that memory a lot and how fearless she was. I will not yield the floor. I do not give up the floor. In thinking about that day, this was my First Time Ever at the capitol. And it was just like a moment of fate, i think. I was just like really activated at that moment. We are coming back. The filibuster was really the Motivating Push that i needed to stand up and say, were tired of the attacks, were tired of you getting involved in our private business. [audience cheering] [soft dramatic music] when i was elected to the senate, rick perry was the governor, and David Dewhurst was Lieutenant Governor. And again, my goal is to make abortion at any stage a thing of the past. [audience cheering] in texas, were fighting Tooth And Nail to protect the unborn. Amen. Republican politicians began to get more and more extreme right, and extreme evangelical and carry those agendas as part of their elections. Matthew 18 6 says, woe be it to those who would harm the little children. Better it be they have a millstone around their neck and dropped in the depth of the sea. Amen. Abortion became a way of coalescing support around the republican party. After roe v. Wade, you kept fighting to restore the sanctity of life, one life at a time, and yes, one law at a time. [audience cheering] and thus began a slow and steady march, intruding upon that right in texas. We passed the womans right to know act, requiring doctors to give vital medical information to a woman seeking an abortion before she makes that unalterable decision. [audience cheering] we passed laws requiring both parental notification and parental consent, to a parents daughters abortion. We also unfunded Planned Parenthood, by over 60 million. [audience cheering] in 2011, we passed, and im proud to say that i signed, a law that prohibits abortion without the mother first having a sonogram. The ideal world is one without abortion, and until then, we will continue to pass laws to ensure abortions are as rare as possible under existing law. [audience cheering] in 2013, the worst that we had seen at that point came, and that was the bill that sought to close almost every Abortion Clinic in our state. Now the senate vote on this is expected tomorrow, unless democrats delay past the midnight deadline. My democratic colleagues and i were unified in our desire to filibuster this bill. In the u. S. Senate, a filibuster is a way of not allowing a bill to come up for debate. In texas, a filibuster offers us an opportunity for an extended debate to raise awareness and to help people understand that a law is being debated that may very well have a detrimental impact on their lives. And this antiabortion bill wouldve been a catastrophe. And then theres the physical feat of performing a filibuster in texas. You cannot have a sip of water, you cannot lean on your desk, you cannot leave the floor to go to the bathroom and you must stay on topic the entire time. I had this little voice inside that felt very committed to being the person who would conduct this filibuster, and ultimately, the caucus made a decision collectively that i would be the person to carry that torch. [dramatic music] we will not stand idly by. [audience cheering] so, the morning of the filibuster, i got to the capitol 9 00 am. Folks are lining up to get in the gallery. Whend you get here . 9 or 8 30 . Yeah, before you get in the gallery . I remember, i just saw this flood on my feed of like, theyre taking over the capitol, like everything was orange. And i was like, oh my god, i gotta get down there now. [soft dramatic music] you know, people are coming from all over to be part of this moment that we like know is coming. Like we know midnight is gonna be it. We just gotta make it till midnight. [clock ticking] [audience cheering] i knew i had to prepare for the fact that i wouldnt be able to take a bathroom break. So that morning, i got up pretty early and a woman gynecologist inserted a catheter, and i found myself with the challenge of several feet of tubing that i had to figure out how to wrap around my leg. Quite a moment of anxiousness, as you can imagine, right before the filibuster began. Senator davis, is it still your intention to filibuster . Yes. Mr. President , i youre recognized. And i intend to speak for an extended period of time on the bill. Thank you very much. Id like to thank our sponsor Liberty Mutual. They customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Contestants ready . Go only pay for what you need. Jingle liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. vo the new Iphone 14 Pro is here. And right now Business Owners can get it on us at tmobile. 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These arent all the serious side effects. Now im back where i belong. Ask your doctor if latuda is right for you. Pay as little as zero dollars for your first prescription. Pay as little as zero dollars [dramatic music] [clock ticking] today, im going to talk about the path these leaders have chosen under this bill and the dark place that the bill will take us. This bill was a fourpronged antiAbortion Access bill. It bans abortion after 20 weeks, it restricts the prescription of medication abortions, it requires Abortion Providers to have hospital admitting privileges at local hospitals, and it requires that Abortion Facilities meet the standards of ambulatory Surgical Centers. Its a really intense set of regulations. Do you not see that this bill will provide the safest care for a woman who decides to have an abortion . Though it was being argued that this bill would make women safer. In fact, it was designed specifically to remove a womans access to her constitutionally protected right to abortion services. Every member on this floor knows that the provisions of the ambulatory Surgical Center standards will immediately place 37 of the 42 Abortion Clinics in texas out of compliance. The law requires that Abortion Facilities operate as ambulatory Surgical Centers, which means, you know, your typical Abortion Provider looks like your Doctors Office. Its a clinic, its small, there are little exam rooms. An ambulatory Surgical Center, however, feels like a hospital, right . Its got these really wide hallways, these huge operating theaters, and youve gotta have like a pharmacy on site. So its a huge hurdle, its just a tremendous hurdle. We, i will not concede that any of these clinics have to close. Im just, you know, they make a lot of money with these abortions. I wanted to clarify that, or at least get your comments on that part. I do not doubt for a moment that there are some of those clinics who simply arent going to have the financial capacities to become an ambulatory Surgical Center. But what i fear most is that in the areas of our state that are most impoverished, that those will be the most likely areas that will not have the resources, and where women who, again, layered upon the sonogram from last session, who now have to have a sonogram, a 24hour waiting period, return, make sure the same doctor who did the sonogram is the person who performs her abortion, and if, for some reason that doctor cant be there the next day, shes gotta start the whole process over again. And its so easy for us to disregard as we stand here in our nice clothing, in our relatively comfortable lives, its so easy for us to say, why is that a big deal . But senator deuell, its a big deal. It is a big deal, and i have been there. That has been my life. I have been to the point when i literally could not put gasoline in my car to go anywhere but from work and back, because i could not afford an extra gallon of gas. [gentle music] i had a conversation with myself, should i tell my story . And i really struggled with it, but i feared that if i did, i was going to make the day about me and it needed to be about all women, every woman in the state that was going to be impacted. And these are the women who are impacted by these kinds of decisions, and shouldnt we be able to say to them that there is a reason for it, that there is absolute Health Reasons for it, and if there isnt, shouldnt we all agree that making sure that they have access is the best thing that we can do for their healthcare in the state of texas . Senator davis, the medical literature i mean, ultimately the populations that are the most affected are these rural, lower income populations, particularly places like the rio grande valley. Theres the border wall. You know, living in south texas, most of the gap is rural, and then you get down to the urban area, which is the valley, like we are lowincome. We are brown and were disproportionately impacted by these antichoice laws. This used to be the Planned Parenthood, and so when the funding was cut, they turned the Planned Parenthood into an adult daycare center. So it was literally right here down the street from where i grew up. If you are someone from brownsville, like my hometown who needed Abortion Care, you would have to drive about an hour, an hour and a half to get to the clinic. And thats if you have access to transportation. Like if i wanted to get an abortion and i was an undocumented woman, i wouldnt have a place to go. Or even me right now, as a young person, if i needed an abortion, i wouldnt be able to afford it. So, i made a Big Orange Sign and it said, god is prochoice, because you know, the democrats that we have here In The Valley dont really vouch for us as much as i think that they should because of, you know, catholicism. You said partisanship, which i dont fall under. No, you do not. cause im a democratic, prolife legislator. You know that i do have an inner strength that supports this bill, and that strength is in the name of my faith as a roman catholic. Antichoice people, you know, they say that theyre being backed up by religion, but at the end of the day, you know, all they do is like damage people and hurt them and you know, make them feel less than, and, you know, shaming them for their decision. And i urge everyone to go home and write their mamas a letter and thank them for being prolife, or else they wouldnt be here today. A lot of what i connected with wendy davis was that she has also gone through a lot of the stuff i, or people that i know have gone through. She was a young mother, she went to a Community College and seeing somebody who used to go to a Community College fighting for reproductive rights as a politician was something that was just like, so mind blowing to me and, you know, fighting alongside leticia van de putte, a woman of color whos also mexican. I know theres a few of my colleagues, and they say, because they are such strong christians, that they are against abortion, and somehow implying that those of us who respect a womans right to make these very difficult decisions are less christian, and so i have to remind my colleagues, im a roman catholic. I had six children in nine years and probably wouldve had more except my uterus gave out, so dont tell me about personal choices. My personal choice is to observe my faith. I cannot dictate that to another woman. What will you do . Will you make Something Better . Create something new . 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