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June 24, 2013

Texas: Hundreds Flood Capitol as Lawmakers Back Sweeping Anti-Abortion Bill 
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Texas state lawmakers have given preliminary approval to some of the
country's strictest anti-abortion restrictions. Hundreds of pro-choice
supporters, many wearing orange t-shirts reading "Stand With Texas
Women," packed into the Texas capitol building into the early hours of
Monday morning as Democrats sought to block Senate Bill 5. Critics say
it will shut down 37 out of 42 abortion clinics in Texas, leaving just
five clinics across the entire state. The bill would ban abortion after
20 weeks, place restrictions on the pill form of abortion, require
providers to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital and force
clinics to make costly upgrades in order to meet the standards of
ambulatory surgical centers. During hours of heated debate over the
bill, Democratic State Rep. Senfronia Thompson displayed a wire
coathanger, a symbol of the potentially fatal practices used when safe
abortion is illegal or inaccessible, asking her colleagues: "Do you want
to return back to the coathanger?"

 

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