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== 1,700 waiting to testify on abortion bill — hearing ex ==

<html>|  |  A Senate panel that recently started a marathon hearing on a package of controversial abortion restrictions will refrain from voting on the measure until the full House moves a bill, the committee chairman said Monday.

At the onset of a hearing on Senate Bill 1, committee chairman Sen. Jane Nelson said she plans to hear testimony from everyone currently in line — there’s a swarm of folks in orange and blue shirts — and from anybody who signed up to testify by 11 a.m.

“At some point we have to say no more oral testimony,” said Nelson,[http://bbs.7366.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=11114738 Options for Professional SEO and PPC Services in India Today], R-Flower Mound, noting that some 379 folks had already filled out witness cards and an estimated 1,700 were waiting in line.

That’s going to set up the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee for a long day and evening that could spill into the early morning. Based on the number of folks in line, Nelson estimated the panel was facing at least 13 hours of testimony.

In comparison, a before the committee chairman cut off testimony and voted to approve its version of the anti-abortion bill. That measure, House Bill 1, is set to be debated by the full House on Tuesday.

Outside of the hearing room, hundreds packed into a number of overflow rooms and lined up in the hallways of the Capitol to testify.

Standing in line to register, Kate Jaceldo, a social worker from San Antonio, said she opposes SB 1 because women and their doctors should be making decision about abortion, rather than legislators.? Along with banning abortion at 20 weeks,[http://www2.toua-u.ac.jp/cgi-bin/bbs/vbbbs.cgi?res=12170 Small Business Web pages and Search engine optimiz], critics of the proposal say it would effectively shutter the majority of the state s abortion clinics in the state.

 I was a teen mom and I know how hard it is to face a pregnancy when you re not prepared for it,” she said. “I had a ton of support but I know a lot of women don t. For that reason, I think women need to make decision based on what s happening in their lives. 

Valerie Harkins, a social worker from Houston, said she took off work and drove three hours to Austin to support SB 1 because she believes all parts of the proposal would increase women s healthcare.

 I m not really here about a women s right to choose, I m here about women s healthcare,” she said. “If she chooses to have that abortion, it needs to be in a medical facility that is to standard, regulated as other medical facilities. 

The Capitol halls,[http://www.jerseys-hearts.com/2012-13-Barcelona-16-Sergio-Home-Jerseys-25793/ 2012-13 Barcelona 16 Sergio Home Jerseys], however, were not nearly as crowded and stuffy as last week when a House committee heard an identical bill (it was so hot and steamy that a woman actually fainted while standing in line to get into that hearing).

It’s still early — and plenty more folks are expected to show for a 7 p.m. pro-abortion rally set to be headlined by Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor turned Fox News talking head.

Back in the committee room, the first full hour of the hearing was spent allowing senators to speak out on the bill. The props came out early, too.

Sen. Bob Deuell, a physician and staunch supporter of the anti-abortion package, plopped up two pair of baby sneakers — one blue, one pink — onto the dais. He said he planned to keep them there for the duration of the hearing.

“As this hearing develops and we address these bills, there’s some other people that haven’t been allowed to speak and that’s the children that would fill these shoes,” he said.

Sen. Carlos Uresti, a San Antonio Democrat who voted in 2011 for a sonogram-abortion law, offered an amendment to the bill to provide an exception for women in remote areas of the state and for those who are victims of rape or incest. He opposes this bill because it would shutter all abortion clinics West of San Antonio.

The bill’s author,[http://www.vl-nuernberg.de/vl-wiki/index.php/Benutzer:Master233#Measuring_the_Metal_Markets_0 Measuring the Metal Markets 0], Sen. Glenn Hegar, shot down the amendment. But Uresti pushed on.

“When we don’t’ have an exception for 12-year-old little girls who have been raped by their step dad or whoever … with this bill we’re telling those women,[http://www.jerseys-hearts.com/NFL-New-York-Jets-Just-Do-ItRed-T-Shirt-26709/ NFL New York Jets Just Do ItRed T-Shirt], they have to carry that baby,” said Uresti. “That’s the concern I have. There has to be exceptions for real life situations when we have women who become victims to monsters.”</html>