Watch a Texas Woman Get Forcibly Removed From Senate Floor For Fighting the Abortion Ban

There's no more denying it: Texas Republicans are trying to silence women arriving at the State Senate to testify against controversial the 20-week abortion ban in Senate Bill 5 (SB5). Despite driving long hours and staying for hours on end to voice their opinions to the committee voting on SB5, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks and force all but 5 of the state's clinics to close, the women of Texas cannot be deterred. One activist in particular, 28-year-old Texan Sarah Slamen, finally got her turn to speak in front of the committee a little after 11 p.m. after being there since the early hours of the morning. Having prepared a written statement before arriving, Slamen admitted to Daily Kos writer Horace Boothroyd III that after listening to testimonies throughout the day, she felt she had to change what she would say.

The life long Texan started out by saying:

"Thank you! For finally working against women so publicly, and not in the shadows like you're used to. Thank you for every single bad press conference with your bad information. Thank you for every hateful statement degrading women and girls to sex objects, and brood mares, and bald eagles, and leather wallets, like your eloquent pro-life supporters have done today."

Slamen went down the line of Senators on the committee, intent on calling them out one by one for standing with a bill that is so restrictive to women's rights. She began with Senator Campbell, an ophthalmologist:

"Senator Campbell, you're an ophthalmologist. So I won't be making you the expert on reproductive health. We can give you all the children with chlamydia and herpes in their eyes, since we don't have Sex Ed in this state."

While Senator Jane Nelson tried to subdue Slamen and silence her, talking over Slamen's allotted time for testifying, Slamen was determined to get her message across, like previous anti-choice advocates had been able to do that day. Two state troopers approached and lifted Slamen from her chair and forced her from the room as Slamen continued on with her message. She was welcomed outside to the cheers of pro-choice advocates.

Watch her testimony here: