REPORTER: Amos Roberts
150 years after the Civil War, rival armies are again facing off in Texas. Only this time the issue they are fighting over isn't slavery, it's abortion, and their battleground is the state capital in Austin.
CROWD: Shame on you, shame on you.
Those in the blue Army are trying to pass laws they say are pro-life. A ban on abortions after 20 instead of 26 weeks and new regulations for abortion clinics they claim will protect women.
MR DEWHURST: I'm fighting for this legislation because Texas babies deserve a chance to live!
CROWD: Whose choice? Our choice!
Those wearing orange are pro-choice - they say the laws will close 37 of the state's 42 abortion clinics.
MS THOMSON: Have you thought about how you drive women back to the coat hanger days, where the illegal abortion has taken place?
Glamorous and battle-hardened, this is the undisputed champion of the Orange Army.
MAN: Our great friend, Senator Wendy Davis.
SEN WENDY DAVIS: Thank you all. I am so proud to be standing here with you today.
Standing is something Democrat Senator Wendy Davis is good at. On the 25th June she became famous for it.
MR DEWHURST: Senator Davis yesterday you gave me a sheet telling me it was your intention to filibuster.
SEN WENDY DAVIS: Yes Mr President - I intend to speak for an extended time on the bill.
In the great American political tradition of the filibuster, Davis planned to speak on the last day of the Senate session until there was no time left to hold a vote.
COMMENTATOR: Nearly seven hours - you're looking live as State Senator Wendy Davis of Forth Worth filibusters a vote on the abortion bill that passed the House yesterday.
And according to Senate chamber rules that means no bathroom break, no sitting or leaning and no eating or drinking. The Democratic Senator is planning to speak for 13 hours straight.
If she filibustered till midnight Davis would kill the bill. But three breaches of Senate rules would kill the filibuster. There was a point of order sustained when a colleague helped her strap on a brace to support her back.
SEN TOMMY WILLIAMS: You said you didn't help her put it on and there's a picture on Twitter right now of you helping her put it on.
And two more for supposedly straying off topic.
MR DEWHURST: Senator Campbell your point of order is well taken and is sustained.
And then something unprecedented happened when Davis was silenced after more than 11 hours on her feet, the public gallery erupted in protest. In the end Wendy won but she knew the Republicans were not going to give up the fight.
CROWD: Wendy, Wendy, Wendy!
Helping Senator Davis with her epic filibuster was abortion clinic owner Amy Hagstrom Miller.
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: I actually was able to supply Wendy with some of the patient stories that she read from the floor.
REPORTER: So her office contacted you and said she's going to need a lot of material, she's going to talk for a lot of hours, what can we say?
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: Exactly.
Abortion clinics are the main target of the Republican bill. At the moment, abortions in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy take place in clinics like this, owned by Hagstrom Miller.
ANDREA FERRIGNO, NURSE: OK, so this is an exam room. Um...
It's a routine procedure with no surgery involved.
ANDREA FERRIGNO: The procedure is so simple, it takes about seven minutes.
But the new bill means abortions could only be performed in something much more high tech like this, what Americans call an ambulatory surgical centre.
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: Ambulatory surgical centres were designed for outpatient surgery of pretty moderate complexity, things like - three or four hour surgeries that involved more than one physician.
Abortion clinic providers say the raft of strict technical requirements will put them out of business.
REPORTER: The bill's supporters are saying this is meant to improve health outcomes for women, they want to upgrade health facilities, they want to make abortions safer.
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: Right. First of all there's no safety problem with abortion care in the state of Texas, they're responding to. It's sort of like an idea of a solution, searching for a problem. Abortion is one of the safest procedures known to medicine. Period. Our complication rates are really, really low.
Wendy Davis' filibuster has made her a local hero and national celebrity.
REPORTER: How does it feel to have become such an icon?
SEN WENDY DAVIS: It's really a privilege. It's been a privilege.
But in some ways it was a hollow victory. Governor Rick Perry has recalled the Legislature for another special session to pass the bill.
REP FERRAR: Can you name some examples of health issues that might arise that would be covered under your exception?
Today the bill is going through the House of Representatives before it reaches the Senate for a second time. Democrats propose amendment after amendment.
REP LAUBENBERG: No, I would not accept an amendment.
The ban on abortions after 20 weeks has no exception in cases of rape or incest.
MS THOMSON: Just let the daddy be the grandfather and the father too.
There is also anger at the potential impact of closing most of the state's abortion clinics, all those that won't meet the new standards.
MS THOMSON: What you're doing is you're making a class separation here, between the wealthy who can afford it, who can travel anywhere in the United States, within the state, and for the poor, you just happen to be up a creek without a paddle. And you can go to the back alleys where a coat hanger is used.
A 2011 law requiring women make two visits to a clinic before getting an abortion has already had an impact, according to Amy Hagstrom Miller.
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: We've seen quite a few cases, pretty poignant cases of women trying to self-abort, by taking medication, or by asking their partner to beat them in their stomach, or trying to cause an abortion.
REPORTER: Are you serious?
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: Absolutely, and we've seen that in the last couple of years, last year and a half when that bill went into effect. Because, just that extra - on average, I believe it's a $150, not that they're paying us, but because the cost they incur, taking days off work having to travel twice, incurring a hotel fee, is just enough so they can't afford the abortion.
REP SARAH DAVIS: This is not a Republican issue versus a Democrat issue, there were Republicans who opposed this bill - well, one...
Representative Sarah Davis is a Republican - the only one opposing this bill.
REP SARAH DAVIS: No-one wants to see abortion. It is a horrible way to end a pregnancy. But it is a constitutionally protected right.
Her amendment would keep the 20-week ban, with exceptions, but remove all the new conditions imposed on abortion facilities and doctors.
REPORTER: For the Republicans that are driving this Bill, what do you think it's about? They claim that it's about protecting women's health.
REP SARAH DAVIS: They do, and I think that, that sounds like, I think that makes a pretty good sound bite, but I don't believe it's about protecting women's health especially when the result of the bill will be shutting down all but five clinics and these clinics do more than just provide abortion services, they provide well-women exams, screening for breast and cervical cancer, which is something that's very dear to my heart, I'm a 37-year-old breast cancer survivor myself, and so shutting down all these
clinics is nothing to promote women's health. I think the bill is ultimately about banning all abortions in this state, and I think that is clearly unconstitutional.
REPORTER: Do your colleagues admit as much to you?
REP SARAH DAVIS: Yes, yes, there have been several members that have admitted as much to me.
Senator Rick Santorum, is one of several former Republican Presidential candidates eager to attach himself to this issue.
SEN RICK SANTORUM: The zealots are only other side ladies and gentlemen. The zealots are the ones out there fighting against this reasonable safety measures for women and children.
NEWS REPORTER: So you refer to people who defend constitutional rights as zealots?
SEN RICK SANTORUM: Ah.
REPORTER: Why has there been such a roll call of republican Presidential nominees wanting to associate themselves with this issue?
REP SARAH DAVIS: I think this is just a political issue that really motivates what we call our primary voters. Our most conservative voters and this is one of those issues that has become almost a litmus test in determining who is the most conservative.
And the war on abortion is not just being fought in Texas.
COMMENTATOR: Tonight abortion opponents are planning to reintroduce their so-called heartbeat bill here in Ohio.
Republican states across the country are introducing near-identical laws.
COMMENTATOR: Republicans in Texas, Ohio and now North Carolina are trying to pass legislation... Kansas is the latest in a string of.....
OVIDE LAMOTAGNE, AMERICANS UNITED FOR LIFE: What we've done is design fifty pieces of model legislation and we've encouraged state legislators to look at these laws, model laws, and adopt those that apply to in their state and what would work for their citizens.
The anti-abortion playbook was written by Washington DC-based lobby group, Americans United for Life. Their strategy - use things like clinic regulations to chip away at the Supreme Court's Roe versus Wade decision protecting the right to abortion.
OVIDE LAMOTAGNE: Until such time Roe versus Wade is reversed and the attitude of Americans change, we can only do so much in terms of the legal constraints, so we think right now the focus needs to be on women's health.
Today the Texas bill must pass its final hurdle - the Senate vote.
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: Today I can't get that REM song out of my head, you know that song - ‘It's the End of the World as We Know It'. I'm trying to keep my sense of humour.
The line of people hoping to get into the gallery snakes through the building.
REPORTER: So you guys are the front of the queue.
WOMAN: We are. 5:00am.
Security is extra tight today, and extra weird.
WOMAN: As we were coming in they were searching our bags and if you had a tampon or a pad or anything that has something to do with menstruation, something that happens to women, you had to leave it outside. But, if you had a handgun and you have a concealed carry license, you can bring your gun in.
REPORTER: And did they say why?
WOMAN: They said they had some intel, there was some intel that something would happen?
REPORTER: With tampons?
MAN: Tampon-based civil disobedience.
SEN WENDY DAVIS: No woman should be judged by someone else. Someone who believes they would have made a different decision. No woman should be judged by someone else because these decisions are never ever easy.
SEN PATRICK: You talked about the choice, you asked us, well why don't we put ourselves in the place of the woman and her choice. What choice does the baby have? Who speaks for the baby?? Do you think if the mother had a conversation with the baby and said you know, this just really isn't convenient to give birth to you right now - do you mind dying?
WOMAN: I can't take it anymore. That is offensive.
SEN PATRICK: I don't get mad at those folks, I pray for them.
Outside the Senate chamber, the orange army chants Wendy's name. Blue shirts are few and far between now. Inside, protesters do their best to disrupt proceedings. One woman chaining herself to the railing. But this time the vote is passed. Those in blue are jubilant. Those in orange have Wendy.
REPORTER: So what did Wendy Davis' filibuster achieve? Isn't it ultimately futile?
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER: Oh, absolutely not. We woke a sleeping giant in the state of Texas and beyond the state of Texas. People have come out of the woodwork to stand up to say this is too much and I won't stand for this.
SEN WENDY DAVIS: Let's make sure that tonight is not an ending point, it's a beginning point for our future, our collective future as we work to take this state back. Thank you all so, so much.
ANJALI RAO: Although I do have my own strong views about this particular subject, the colour of the dress I'm wearing tonight is purely coincidental. As for Wendy Davis' filibuster, she is now reportedly running for governor of the Lone Star state. You can leave your comments on the abortion debate on our website.
Reporter/Camera
AMOS ROBERTS
Producer
VICTORIA STROBL
Fixer
ELEANOR BELL
Editors
MICAH MCGOWN
DAVID POTTS
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN