Tolbert: Texas Legislature Seeks To Pass Pain Protection Abortion Ban

I am on vacation in Texas this week with my family on an old fashioned road trip. If you are ever in Grapevine, get yourself a bowl of red at Tolbert’s.

We also stopped by the state capitol building in Austin on Sunday and stumbled into a rare Sunday special session.  Of course, a rotunda full of protesters is my idea of a good thing.  My family graciously endured.

It seems Republicans along with a handful of pro-life Democrats are pushing through a piece of pro-life legislation that would ban abortion at 20 weeks – similar to the Arkansas Pain Protection Act – and would also add some other requirements on facilities that provide abortions in Texas. The capitol was overrun with pro-choice protesters but I had the privilege of meeting some wonderful pro-life activists from Life Advocates and also Carrol Everett who wrote “Blood Money.”

A bit of high drama is expected in the Texas Senate tomorrow.  The special session ends at midnight and Texas Democrats are hoping to kill the pro-life bill with a marathon filibuster. You can read more about it here or watch the live stream on Tuesday here.

Below was the scene we found on Sunday.