It's absolutely no surprise, but the moment deserves to be marked: Texas governor and presidential primary laughingstock Rick Perry
has signed the restrictive anti-abortion bill that will close all but five clinics in the state, forcing many women to drive hundreds of miles to obtain a legal medical procedure. This about sums up the reality of the situation:
Protesters outside Thursday's ceremony had signs reading, "Shame."
The fight to block this bill did mobilize many Texans in protest, and of course made a hero of state Sen. Wendy Davis for the filibuster that ran out the clock on a first special session of the legislature and forced Perry to call a second special session. The repeated special sessions highlighted the lengths Texas Republicans will go to in the cause of restricting women's reproductive freedom. Experience tells us that Texas women will not stop seeking abortion. But the vulnerable ones will be pushed to less safe ways of obtaining them, and that, as we've seen so many times, will cost lives.