The power of one

She stood in pink tennis shoes and spoke for 13 hours, with no food or bathroom breaks and no furniture to lean upon. Meanwhile, scores of supporters filled the legislative gallery and state capital halls, wearing orange shirts and making lots of noise. Hundreds of thousands of people followed the event on Twitter and watched it live on YouTube, sharing the moment in real-time from the comfort of their own homes.

This was not just a filibuster by Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, but rather a “people’s filibuster” as hundreds of angry protestors erupted into loud chants and cheers, creating so much chaos and confusion they ran out the clock, effectively killing SB 5, a bill that would have virtually ended abortion rights in Texas.

The mainstream media was absent during the final hours of the filibuster, leaving Twitter to fill the void, with people helpfully posting links to live feeds and vivid pictures of protesters in the state capital. Watching the video and reading the scrolling commentary was eerily communal, with Nevadans across the state, all focused on the same compelling scenes. Twitter at its best.

Meanwhile CNN and other so-called 24-hour news stations, which go on endlessly about any sort of disaster that has already happened, were strangely absent, although Fox News and the AP later issued false reports that the filibuster had failed.

Given the dominance of Republican men in the Texas Senate, one couldn’t help but wonder why they let it happen. After all, they wrote the rules. The only explanation: sheer arrogance and hubris. It didn’t occur to these senators who have controlled things for so long that what they regarded as a small political stunt would resonate so strongly with the public, turning the Senate into a circus and making Sen. Davis an instant national celebrity.

They certainly didn’t count on the hushed drama of state Sen. Leticia Van De Putte calmly asking the Senate President: “At what point does a female senator have to raise her hand to be recognized over her male colleagues in the room?” Or the chambers erupting with cheers that didn’t stop as the clock ticked down to midnight.

The day after the filibuster, some in Nevada’s Twitterverse were self-righteously congratulating our legislature for not “devolving into anarchy,” quickly labeling the protestors an angry “mob,” echoing the Texas lieutenant governor who ended the evening looking foolish and powerless on a suddenly national stage.

Nevada has not experienced this type of open warfare over abortion rights thanks to the constitutional protection approved by voters when they wisely passed Question 7 back in 1990, requiring a vote of the people before these rights can be taken away. Instead, the attacks on reproductive health care in Nevada tend to be more subtle, usually pushed by Mormon or evangelical legislators. The attack this session was hidden in SB 192, a Trojan-horse bill masquerading as “religious freedom,” allowing medical providers to deny a woman birth control or even an emergency abortion if someone had a religious objection.

In Texas, there is no such constitutional protection, and the Republican senators, along with Gov. Rick Perry, had no qualms about outlawing every abortion after 20 weeks, even for medical reasons. The bill implements new restrictions on abortion clinics that would close nearly every one of them under the familiar ruse of “protecting” women.

At press time, Perry had called another special session to try to pass the bill again, no doubt taking Sen. Davis and her supporters more seriously.

But the victory was in the battle this time. Thanks to sheer courage, stamina and determination, women found their voice through a pink-tennis-shoe-clad senator in the unlikely state of Texas. May there be many more. #StandWithWendy