By NRLC Intern Melissa Zierke
NRLC in Austin, Texas
(left to right) Melissa Zierke, Evan Marist, James Balch, Andrew Bair, and Christine Rouselle.
When Texas Governor Rick Perry addressed us at the National Right to Life Convention in June in Dallas, our pro life presence was greatly appreciated. “Boy, am I glad to see you people,” the governor told the folks attending the general session, with an obvious sigh of joyful relief in his voice.
That convention followed on the heels of a pro-abortion mob hijacking a special session of the Texas Legislature which sought to vote on a bill to ban abortions at 20 weeks when unborn babies can feel pain. With a filibuster by pro-abortion state Sen. Wendy Davis and a crowd so loud it made conducting business impossible, they had thwarted passage.
But with steely determination, Gov. Perry informed us that this pro-life legislation would indeed become law and that he was calling a second special session.
I was delighted to hear him say this, but intrigued as to how all of this was going to happen in light of the tricks and tactics we had just seen from the “pro-choice” side.
Little did I know that less than a week later I would be boarding a bus in Washington, D.C., for 30-hour ride from Washington, DC back to Texas to support those in the Texas Legislature who had come back for yet another special session. Those legislators were more determined than ever to pass the ban on abortion after 20
weeks and require that abortion clinics are safer for women.
The long bus ride gave those of us from NRLC the chance to get to know interns from other organizations who were also fighting for the bill and to prepare for the events that lay ahead of us. We were confident that extreme pro-abortion view would be defeated.
Our week-long stay started out mellow, with our being briefed on what we might expect as we approached the grounds of the capitol. This was a new experience for me and for most of those around me. The only intimation we had of the situation we were going into was a Youtube video we had all seen of people in orange making chaos in the senate chambers.
Surprisingly, we spent our first couple of days around the capital in calm and collected conversations with a few sympathetic native Texans. We encountered just a few small pockets of pro-abortion protesters. In the early part of the week, I looked around and naively thought to myself, “There is not that large of an opposition down here. Are we making too big a fuss?”
That was to change suddenly and forcefully. Just as I thought I would be able to sit comfortably in the gallery watching Texas state house members vote to pass the legislation on to the senate, I began to hear a roar of chanting begin outside those doors.
The chanting was coming from the pro-abortion protesters outside. I was a bit taken aback watching the number of police officers go from about 20 to 50 in a matter of a few minutes. (They were obviously more prepared to handle any civil disobedience this time around.)
Once the bill passed the House and people exited the gallery, all of us had to walk pass an angry mob, chanting ‘shame’ to anyone wearing the blue T-shirt that was being worn by those of us defending unborn life.
So as we stood at midweek, I thought, “Ok, a little yelling, no big deal.” Again I had vastly underestimated how boisterous—and menacing- this was about to become. As the week went on, the volume and the vitriol escalated. The more evident it became that abortion’s defenders were not going to be able to stop this legislation in the Senate, the more angry they got, the more they yelled, screamed, and threw temper tantrums.
Friday was the day the Texas Senate was scheduled to vote on the bill, which was widely expected to pass. We were told that morning to be prepared for what could be some intense situations. We were also reminded to do our best to stay calm, keeping in mind that the pro life side would win at the end of the day and reminding ourselves that this was the outcome we were there to support.
When we first arrived at the capitol, things seemed calm. But as soon as we cleared security, we could already hear the chanting. I wondered, “Are they really going to be able keep this up all day?” I thought, “They can’t possibly do that, they’ll eventually get tired.”
We spent the day walking around the capital handing out stickers and bottled water to pro-lifers AND even to pro abortion supporters. All were waiting in line under a hot Texas sun hoping to get a seat in the senate gallery to watch the bill be debated and voted on.
We ran out of supplies around three o’clock and were offered refuge in a room off to the side of the main capitol floor. There was a small group of us sitting in the room with Texas Right to Life staff watching the debate on closed circuit cam.
One of the pro-life state senators invited us to have some dinner in his office. As we passed by, the pro-abortion protesters jeered, chanted and waved their perverse signs. At some level perhaps they imagined their anger and hatred for life was going to prevail. Our response? I saw a group of folks in blue shirts circling them with heads down, praying for them and showing support for the voiceless in a much more dignified and admirable manner.
After our pizza dinner, I choose to join those people in blue in prayer. The chanting and jeering just seemed to grow louder and angrier as the evening went on. I stood there interceding for the unborn. I prayed for those whose contempt for unborn life is so absolute that not even a painful abortion at twenty weeks is beyond the pale.
Their chants were crass and vulgar, almost juvenile as they sought to come up with rhymes to offensive, hateful words. I can’t repeat most of the things I heard, nor would I want to.
One of our group members came around and informed us the Senate would probably be voting within 30 minutes. Sensing that the atmosphere could only grow worse, they cautioned us that when they did, we might want to find a safe place to be.
I just wanted to get out of there. Nothing that had happened led you to believe that things there in the capitol building were going to end peacefully with the pro aborts just shrugging their shoulders, saying ‘oh well’, and packing up and going home.
There was, we were warned, a high chance of non-peaceful demonstrations. So I, along with a handful of other interns, left the capitol and went to shower at a hotel some of the sympathetic state Senators had helped line up after we had been kicked out of a building by some conniving pro-abortionists.
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Our group waited at the hotel while we kept in contact with our people on the inside who were feeding us the latest news. The angry mob howled and chanted, chanted and howled, but the bill passed and everyone got out safely.
Just a few days later, just as he promised, Governor Rick Perry signed that bill into law, making abortion on pain-capable unborn babies after 20 weeks illegal in Texas.
The travel, the heat, the hostility? It was all worth it for the sake of those unborn babies and their mothers in Texas.
Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.