Texas Woman Dragged Out Of Senate After Testifying Against Abortion Bill
On Wednesday, a woman was forcibly removed from a Texas senate committee meeting after she voiced her frustration over the new, restrictive bill that will ban all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and close down the majority of the state's abortion clinics.
Huffington Post reports that 28-year-old Sarah Slamen waited for hours in the state capitol before she was given the chance to testify against the bill. Although she initially planned to address the ways Gov. Rick Perry's sister could stand to profit financially from the legislation, she quickly changed her mind when she was called before state Sen. Jane Nelson.
"Thank you for being you, Texas legislature. You have radicalized hundreds of thousands of us, and no matter what you do for the next 22 days, women and their allies are coming for you," Slamen said. "Let's start down the line. Senator Campbell, you're an ophthalmologist. So I won't be making you the expert on reproductive health. We can give you all the children with chlamydia and herpes in their eyes, since we don't have Sex Ed in this state."
When Nelson accused her of being disrespectful before the senate, she fired back, "Excuse me, this is my government, ma'am. I will judge you."
At that point, state troopers began to drag her out of the room.
"This is a farce. The Texas legislature is a bunch of liars who hate women," she continued.
In an interview with Daily Kos, she says no explanation was offered.
"There was no explanation. Senator Jane Nelson tried to say I was being disrespectful but how would she know? I barely got to give the complete performance review of every member on the committee," she said. "Pointing out that Sen. Donna Campbell is an ophthalmologist is not disrespectful when she asserts in a state hearing that she should be THE expert on reproductive health. What was disrespectful was the parade of anti-choice zealots and misogynists who got up for 13 hours and called women murderers, killers, promiscuous, thoughtless, and selfish. Not a peep from committee chair Nelson on those."
The bill was successfully blocked two weeks ago by Sen. Wendy Davis' widely publicized, 11-hour filibuster. Harsh statehouse regulations governing filibusters make it unlikely that she will be able to stop it a second time, according to CNN.
"But I don't think it's the end. It's the beginning of a battle line," Davis told reporters.