Yesterday was one of the most rewarding days of my life. I joined Planned Parenthood volunteers from across the state in Austin to lobby for the
Texas Prevention First Act (a bill before the Texas House which would increase funding for measures designed to reduce unintended pregnancies, the need for abortion and infection rates of sexually-transmitted diseases). The day was as rewarding as it was exciting. Perhaps the most touching aspect of the day was the number of women who went out of their way to say ‘thank-you’ to an organization which holds their interests as its first priority.
The day began at 6:30am at the Planned Parenthood clinic on Fannin. The volunteers helped load the buses with food, water and most importantly, packets containing information on the bill for which we were going to lobby later that day. An hour later, we were off to Austin. On the way, we watched a video giving us background on the bill and few pointers from professional lobbyists as to what information our representatives would be most interested in hearing. Three short hours later, we arrived at the Austin Convention Center where
Rep. Mark Strama (one of the bill’s authors) spoke to us about the importance of this legislation. See Rep. Strama addressing us
here and a life-sized Emergency Contraception pill
here!
The bill has bipartisan support, due in large part to the fact that it provides no additional funding for abortion related services. Instead, it seeks to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place by funding sexual education programs. These programs are abstinence-based, which go a step further than the abstinence-only programs by educating the public about preventative measures in addition to stating the reality that the only guaranteed safeguard is abstinence.
From there, we were off to the Texas State Capitol (picture
here). The building is beautiful and enormous! It has two giant rotundas towering over floors adorned with symbols of the state of Texas (pictures
here and
here). Of course the focal point of the Texas capitol is the dome - the only one in the nation taller than our nation’s capitol dome (picture
here). Once there, we had lunch at the capitol cafeteria and prepared for our first meeting.
I was a group leader (who decided
that was a good idea!) so I led my group to
Rep. Garnet Coleman’s office where we joined two other groups for our meeting with Rep. Coleman’s staff. Rep. Coleman is a firm supporter of Planned Parenthood, so we knew we could count on his vote. This meeting was more of a ‘thank-you’ than an act of lobbying – a nice warm up! We were fortunate enough to get five minutes with Rep. Coleman (picture
here) where he thanked us for our visit and promised his support for the bill.
With an hour to go before our next meeting, I took my group to the Governor’s office. It was by far the most ornate room we saw (picture
here) – it was particularly interesting to read the history of the furniture in the room, some of which was over 150 years old (on the left of the picture, you see an authentic tête-à-tête). We left messages for the Governor requesting that he sign the bill when it arrives on his desk and head to our next stop – the chamber of the Texas House of Representatives.
This was my favorite part of the day – watching the Texas House in session was both exciting and surprising. The room is beautiful (picture
here) and set up much like the U.S. House of Representatives. What surprised me was how noisy it was! For some reason I always envisioned a House of Representatives as a place where only the person who held the floor spoke and everyone else listened – boy was I wrong! It is a myriad of action with people running back and forth, holding impromptu meetings/debates and it is about as noisy as a theatre before a show starts.
We then headed to our next meeting with
Senator Rodney Ellis’ staff. Most of the Houston contingent was there and Sen. Ellis’s chief of staff sat with us for about twenty minutes. After the trip’s leader presented the lobbying packet to the COS, she opened the floor to questions/comments. One of our volunteers stood and expressed her thanks for Sen. Ellis’ support of women’s issues and said she looked forward to his support on this woman’s issue as well. I then stood and made the following statement (paraphrased):
“We are keenly aware of the fact that Planned Parenthood is not an organization without detractors. With regards to them, while we clearly disagree on what a woman’s options should be once she is pregnant, we can all agree that every pregnancy should a desired one. This in mind, we would hope that you could convince even our most ardent opponents to support this bill, if not from a moral standpoint, then perhaps from the standpoint of fiscal conservatism. As your lobby packet points out, a year of family planning service costs about $180, 90% of which is federally subsidized, while Medicare charges the state over $8000 for a year of pregnancy care.”
She thanked me for my comment and afterward, the trip’s leader asked me if I might make that same comment when we met with
Rep. Ellen Cohen. I agreed and half an hour later, I was shaking hands with Rep. Cohen with cameras clicking and hundreds watching as I repeated what I had said earlier. She was very kind and encouraging – and she refused to shake my hand opting instead for a hug. Speaking with a representative in the state capitol while representing an organization as noble as Planned Parenthood has to be one of the proudest moments of my life (plenty of pictures were taken – I’ll get my hands on one soon!).
The day wound down with a group picture on the capitol steps. From there, we headed to a cocktail hour at Gringos Mexican restaurant (incredible marguerites!). For the next three hours, we sat around eating, drinking, and talking about how when it came to reproductive rights, we were this generations warriors. It is a fight which is going to come to a head soon, and for the sake of every American woman – we need to be ready.
Sitting on the bus riding back to Houston, the events of the day running through my head, one thing kept coming to mind. That morning at the Austin Convention Center, Austin city council member
Brewster McCracken introduced the various speakers we enjoyed. As he sent us off to the capitol, he said something which stuck with me. With the right of a woman to control that which occurs within her own body constantly threatened by a well-intentioned but misguided movement, it is important to remember that though setbacks will occur, women will ultimately win because – as Mr. McCracken put it – “we are on the right side of history.”
