A cacophony of cheers rained down on the Texas Capitol on an otherwise unassuming Tuesday in June 2013. Groups of people from across the city of Austin and elsewhere in the state convened in the building to watch the athletic feat of Texas state senator Wendy Davis as she stood tall in front of her fellow senators to protect one of our most sacred choices as citizens: the right to have an abortion.
As Davis tells Teen Vogue, it was “the People’s Filibuster.”
“We call it that because it really was the thousands of people who made a decision to show up at the Texas Capitol that day who, through their voices and their upset at an injustice helped to get the filibuster pass the midnight deadline that day and to kill – at least temporarily – a bill that was intended to close almost all of our abortion clinics,” Davis said, noting the bill ultimately did pass, causing the closure of half of Texas’s clinics. When we spoke over Zoom, it was two days before the tenth anniversary of Davis’s eleven hour filibuster, and a day before the year anniversary of the reversal of Roe.
These days, Davis continues to fight for the abortion rights of every Texan in her recent position at Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. For Teen Vogue Davis reflects on the People’s Filibuster, the Dobbs decision, and more.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Teen Vogue: Take me back to when you decided you would do the filibuster.
Wendy Davis: I made a decision to filibuster along with my Democratic colleagues [because] we understood what the consequences of the closure of healthcare access would mean for people in our state, and we understood, of course, at a very deep personal level what that was going to mean in the lives of people that we were tasked with representing. My democratic colleagues gave me the honor and the privilege of conducting the filibuster.
A filibuster in Texas is a feat of physical challenge. We aren't allowed to lean on our desks or have a sip of water or have anything to eat or even leave the floor to go to the bathroom. We're not allowed to take turns and have another senator take over for a while. So it was a great privilege to have the trust of my democratic colleagues to do that.
But I was very committed to it, not only because of my own experience needing access to abortion care in my life, but because I understood exactly what it was going to mean to take that access away from other people who would need it in the future.
TV: When was the moment you realized people were tuning in to watch the filibuster?
WD: I was really struck by the number of people around the country who were paying attention and who cared about what was happening in Texas.
It was really early on in [the use of] live-streaming technology. And I didn't really have any clue that people were watching. It was very clear to me that the Capitol was just full of energy and people. The gallery, of course, was full all day, but I could tell also from the noise and the occasional uproar that I was hearing outside the Senate Chamber that the Capitol was experiencing something unusual.
It really speaks to the power that people have when they make a decision to show up. I'm sure that the folks who came down that day had no idea that they would ultimately actually play such a pivotal role in moving the filibuster past [the] midnight deadline, but they felt compelled by their care and concern for themselves and for each other and their fellow Texans to show up and to demonstrate their upset at the injustice that was happening that day, knowing what the consequences of it would be.
TV: What have been some of the immediate effects that you've seen of the Roe reversal and some of the longer-term effects that you see coming?
So more immediately, we've all seen the stories in the news, and I've certainly talked to a number of women who have experienced life-threatening situations because of pregnancies that were non-viable, miscarriage situations, women whose water has broken and who haven't been able to get the care that they need until their lives are literally at risk.
We also know that the [abortion laws] in place in Texas have a disproportionate impact on women of color, [and] women in low-income communities. The ripple effects in a state where we already have such a poor climate of healthcare will mean – and I believe the data is going to show it has already meant – that maternal mortality and morbidity in a state like Texas, where it was already so severe, is only going to get worse.
There also, of course, have been a number of studies on the financial impact for women who aren't able to make a decision about when and whether to have children, and because the disproportionate impact is in low-income communities, what it means is almost an assured growth in generational poverty.
I know from my own personal experience that being able to control when and whether I had children meant that I could, as a single mom, put my foot on the path of higher education ultimately, and climb out of poverty. And I know without a doubt that if I hadn't had access to reproductive healthcare, that would not have been possible for me. It makes me so angry to know that there are people across our state who want nothing more than to provide for themselves and their families to live with, hope for the future, and who will have yet another obstacle thrown in their path.
It wasn't just what we were able to do for our own families when we gained full bodily autonomy. It was what we were able to contribute to the bottom line of our state economies, our local communities, and of course the national economy. I truly believe that we're going to see a consequence of that withdrawal.
I also know here in Texas that we already have such a dearth of healthcare in the obstetrics and gynecological field. We've had the [most] rural hospital closures in the country because of a failure of leadership here, and a decision not to expand Medicaid.
We're one of only 10 states now that have not expanded Medicaid, in a state of 30 million people and with the highest percentage and raw number of uninsured people in the country. And so when you have that dynamic against the backdrop of fewer and fewer healthcare facilities, and fewer and fewer doctors who are here willing to practice obstetrics and gynecology, it is going to have an impact on all people who become pregnant and who need that care.
We already know that in Texas, [medical residencies] are not [able] any longer to train doctors in abortion care. OBGYNs understand that there’s always the need for that care is going to exist. There are of course situations that arise that demand that for their patients' health and wellbeing. And so fewer and fewer doctors who are seeking to become OBGYNs, are willing to do their residencies here or to establish practices here.
And this is just the beginning.
TV: Tell me a bit about your work with Planned Parenthood Texas Votes.
WD: My goal is to help set in place a strategic plan that will take this organization through the next decade, to work strategically on how we are going to begin to win seat by seat. [That includes] seats in the State House and Senate, and at city councils and county commissioner courts around the state, but also to try to break through and win a statewide race and have in place the kind of voice that we are going to need in the next redistricting cycle, so that we can begin to regain the rights that we once had.
We won't do that if we can't have fair maps drawn. We are living in such a state of gerrymandered existence right now that a very, very small minority of voters of extreme right-wing interests are dictating the outcome of who represents us, and it's not reflective of who we are as a state, unfortunately.
TV: Black women are set to lose the most when it comes to the increasing inaccessibility to abortion care. How does your work specifically address this need?
WD: There's so many stories out there that aren't making the news headlines of women who are in low-income situations, heavily impacting women of color, [and] heavily impacting Black women who are suffering the most severe maternal mortality consequences of the failure to address the care that they need. We already know that the healthcare challenge exists in our state, that it's worsening, and that it threatens to trap people in poverty.
And that, of course, is something that all of us have a vested stake in, through our shared humanity. But even beyond that, what it means for the overall well-being of our communities at Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, we are the political and advocacy arm for the healthcare affiliates in the state of Texas. We have three healthcare affiliates that are separated by geography. Those healthcare affiliates are tasked with the monumental responsibility of providing healthcare to people in a state that has very little in the way of healthcare access, especially for low-income people.
TV: What do you tell the young person who feels fatigued and let down by the Democrats, or the person who is like, Well, I understand that voting is important, but I need an abortion today. I can't wait six weeks from now or a year from now to vote. What's going to happen to me today?
WD: It's such a good question. Number one, through some of the work that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for example is doing, they're working to make sure that people who need access to that care are getting the kind of support that they need to go elsewhere outside the state of Texas to receive it.
There are a number of abortion funds in our state as well, that are propped up and doing that work and doing it incredibly well, and we certainly support and connect patients, or our healthcare affiliates connect patients, to that work. It's a crisis of today, as you say, and it's a crisis of the long term, and we have to think with both views. In the short term, how are we going to help make sure that everyone that can get access to that care is able to get it? That looks like fighting back against the attempt to roll back access to the abortion medication Mifepristone pill and making sure that patients can get the care that they need elsewhere in states outside of Texas.
And then in the longer term, it means trying to restore access to family planning funding; trying to do everything we can to elect lawmakers who are going to support, not restrict reproductive rights and autonomy; and working at the federal level to make sure that we get once and for all installed in statute the Women's Health Protection Act, that will provide the comprehensive reproductive healthcare rights and access that people across this country deserve.
TV: And for my last question: what gives you hope these days?
WD: Young people give me hope. Truly. I was just looking at a poll that NBC did, and it showed that women ages 18 to 49, 80% of women in that age category support access to abortion and disagree with the Dobbs decision. And I'm relying on them and the work that our organization, and so many other organizations across Texas and across this country, are doing to energize, motivate, and turn out that vote. It is their future, their lives really, that they are voting for. And I hope to help them better understand their stake in this, their role in turning things back.
And based on what I see in the younger generations that we work with across this state, I am very inspired that they are absolutely willing to take the mantle of this fight and to ultimately push it back successfully.
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