State Sen. Wendy Davis became the symbol of fighting back against threats to reproductive rights after leading a marathon filibuster to block an abortion vote in the Texas Senate.
Geared up with a pair of athletic sneakers and eventually a back brace, the Democrat began her filibuster around 11 a.m. local time and kept going for throughout the entire day. Inspired by her passionate efforts, hundreds of protesters packed into the state capitol to cheer her on and voice their anger about the proposed measure.
Senate Bill 5 would have essentially shutdown nearly all abortion clinics in the state and banned the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The world appeared to be watching the nail-biter session special session being live-streamed on YouTube, including the President of The United States. Users swapped out their profile pics, followed the blow-by-blows and showed their support on social media platforms using the hashtag #standwithwendy.
http://storify.com/digimuller/standwithwendy
Sarah Muller