Texas Literally Turns Back the Clock on Women's Rights. Democracy Aborted. (UPDATE: WIN!)

 

Senator Wendy Davis (D) filibustered in the Texas state legislature for 13 hours yesterday in order to prevent a vote on a bill which would unconstitutionally criminalize all abortions after 20 weeks, close all but five of Texas clinics that provide abortions and defund Planned Parenthood. Aside from not being allowed to eat or go to the bathroom, she wasn't even allowed to lean against the podium. And, unlike filibusters you may have seen before, she had to stay germane to the topic -- no reading from the phone book -- and the decision as to whether or not she 'strayed' from the topic was decided by the men of the GOP.

Right before midnight -- the deadline for voting -- it was declared that she had achieved a third strike because she was talking about forced invasive ultrasounds which somehow wasn't on topic. Hundreds in the audience erupted in chants of "Let her speak!" as a bunch of men debated her right to continue and -- no surprise -- decided that she could not.

Then they took a vote on the bill -- over 100,000 watched a live stream of the vote, which occurred AFTER MIDNIGHT -- meaning too late to pass the bill.

So what did the legislature do? They turned back the clock on the vote just as they turned back the clock on women's reproductive rights.

Here's the original actual recorded time of the vote on the legislature's website which happened at 12:02 AM TODAY:

Here's the forged one which they are claiming took place at 11:57 PM yesterday:

Here's the actual time stamp:

And then they arrested the audience who were protesting the illegal vote.

Democracy. Too bad we don't have one in Texas.

Or as was tweeted by Martha Plimpton:

#TxGOP claims to know the exact moment at which life begins, but can't comprehend "midnight." Hi. #SB5 #TxLegeFail
— Martha Plimpton (@MarthaPlimpton) June 26, 2013

Yep, Texas finally found a real instance of voter fraud.

UPDATE: WIN!!! 

BREAKING: Texas lt. gov. reverses himself, declares vote on tough abortion bill came too late to pass.
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 26, 2013