by Cindy Sunday Powell, Executive Director
The older man and young man were talking, sometimes laughing together. This seemed odd, not what I was expecting. I watched them for hours. Why? Because I was a “blue shirt” in line at the Capitol for last Friday’s vote on HB2.
The older man was also a blue shirt and the young man was an orange shirt. We stood in line for eight hours waiting to enter the gallery. Yes, there were some very vocal, raucous even, orange shirts; we heard chanting and yelling in the rotunda throughout the evening. However, many of the orange shirts and blue shirts we saw were civil. We each were passionate about our causes and were there to support them.
Sitting in the gallery listening to the speeches from both sides, I was so proud of our pro-life legislators. This was an historic moment and despite the negative national media coverage; despite the thought of the 2014 election on the horizon; our pro-life legislators (18 Republicans and 1 Democrat) voted for the pre-born pain bill and for improving conditions for women who choose abortion. I wondered, “Why were there objections to this bill?” Take away politics, religion, fear and hate; then ask the ones who oppose this bill two questions:
- Knowing a five-month baby in his/her mother’s womb is going to die through abortion, would you want him/her to feel more pain or less pain?
- Knowing women are having abortions, do you want safeguards in place so they have safer abortions or do you want the abortion clinics to decide if they want to spend money to make their clinics safer?
Is it as simple as that? It is not simple at all; but on these two questions, I believe the orange shirts and blue shirts could have common ground.
Pictured left to right: PACN volunteer Nicole, Executive Director Cindy Sunday Powell and Conroe Center Director Teri McGiffert were in Austin on July 12, 2013, to #Stand4Life. Not pictured: Spring/Woodlands Center Director Karen Gould.