Ohio.
North Carolina.
My heart is breaking.
Update: Via Liss at Shakesville.
Also this morning, in Texas:
Texas activists, who have been working to defeat a package of abortion restrictions for the past several weeks, are back at it now that their lawmakers are taking up the measures yet again in a second special session. On Monday, an estimated 5,000 activists rallied at the state capitol. And on Tuesday, thousands of protesters registered to testify against the anti-abortion legislation.
But early on Wednesday morning, a Texas House committee ultimately cut off the ongoing public testimony and voted to advance the contentious abortion restrictions, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks and shut down the vast majority of the abortion clinics in the state. According to the Associated Press, Republicans in the House also imposed "strict security precautions" to prevent women's health advocates from disrupting the vote.
More than 3,500 people flooded the capitol on Tuesday to register their opposition to the abortion restrictions. The AP estimates that about 1,100 of those people also signed up to testify before the House committee, although Dallas News reports that figure was actually closer to 2,300. The protesters filled up about seven overflow rooms in the capitol.
"In terms of witnesses, the system has never seen overload like this," Rep. Helen Giddings (D), the vice chairwoman of the House State Affairs Committee, noted.
Nonetheless, fewer than 100 people were actually given a chance to express their views before the committee.
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