Mike Stone/Reuters
Abortion opponents showed their support for the bill.
AUSTIN, Tex. — The restrictive abortion bill that has stirred up Texas politics in the past few weeks is once again moving its way through the Legislature during a second special session called by Gov. Rick Perry.
The bill was initially stalled last month by the 11-hour filibuster of State Senator Wendy Davis, Democrat of Fort Worth. A new version was drafted, restarting the process in the Republican-controlled Texas House with a hearing on Monday and an often-angry debate on the floor on Tuesday.
The bill, like its predecessor, would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion clinics to the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers. Its stringent requirements for the clinics are described by the bill's supporters as a means to improve safety but denounced by opponents as a way to burden the clinics with expenses that will not improve the health of patients and would force many that cannot afford the changes to close.
At an early point in Tuesday's debate, Representative Senfronia Thompson, Democrat of Houston, spoke at the chamber's front microphone surrounded by allies holding coat hangers — an allusion to the kinds of dangerous procedures that opponents of the bill say women will resort to if clinics are closed and access to legal abortion is narrowed.
Her proposed amendment, to create an exception to the ban on abortions after 20 weeks, was shelved by votes along party lines, as were other proposed changes. Much of the pointed questioning of the bill by Democratic House members seemed to anticipate later court challenges, should the bill become law.
Meanwhile, competing rallies have taken place around the Capitol complex. Contingents supporting the bill, dressed in blue, and those opposed, in orange, could be seen throughout the Capitol and in the House gallery.
On Monday evening, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas spoke to a crowd supporting the bill; that group was later confronted by opponents, who followed with a rally of their own. While voices were raised and slogans exchanged, the evening passed peacefully.
On Tuesday morning, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund announced a "Stand with Texas Women" bus tour across the state, with events to be held in various cities to draw attention to the issues being debated.
"It's time to get the Texas Legislature out of our examination rooms," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards, who died in 2006.
In an interview, Ms. Richards said that she was heartened to see the thousands of protesters, many of them young, coming to Austin to voice their opposition to the bill. Recalling her mother's campaign for governor, she said, "It was on a platform that we need to open up government to the people of Texas, and boy! I've never seen that more than the last few weeks."
Noting that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had called opponents in the Senate gallery during the final hours of the previous session an "unruly mob," she said, "I call it participatory democracy — that's what democracy is about."
Mr. Dewhurst, a Republican, issued a statement on Monday strongly supporting the bill and telling opponents, "We love you."
He added: "We love you because as a Christian, as Christians, we love you just as much as we love that unborn baby. And that as an American, I respect your First Amendment rights to free speech. As a Texan, I respect your toughness. But as a leader, we're going to pass this bill."
When that might happen is still something of an open question, complicated by the rules of the Texas House and Senate. The House is unlikely to vote final passage of the bill before Wednesday; the Senate committee that would consider the House measure, Health and Human Services, has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to do so.
After that, the bill would go to the full Senate for a vote — "My guess is Monday," said Senator Rodney Ellis, Democrat of Houston. "It's possible Friday, but there's a whole lot of hoops to go through."
Mr. Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, expressed some of that uncertainty in a brief Senate session on Tuesday, saying he would be "talking with the members about whether we want to come back in on Friday or Saturday, or whether we want to come back in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday" to consider the bill.
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