Abortion Curbs Advance in Texas
The state took a major step toward enacting new abortion restrictions on Friday after a lawmaker cut short an attempt to stage a “citizen filibuster.” Hundreds of people, most of them women opposed to the legislation, were waiting to speak when Representative Byron Cook, the Republican chairman of the State Affairs Committee, said the witnesses had become repetitive and he would allow only two more hours of testimony. Normally each witness may testify for three minutes. Mr. Cook’s committee approved all of the measures on a party-line vote without comment. The Republican-backed measures would ban abortions after 20 weeks; the current limit is 24 weeks.