Phillips provides a very interesting and well thought out opinion piece
on Texas’ current political culture surrounding women’s issues. In her
introduction, Phillips reminds the reader that Texas has been a leader in supporting
women’s leadership roles in Texas in the past but our current male-dominated
GOP leadership unfortunately is not as supportive of women’s rights. Throughout
her article, she explains how the debate over the Senate Bill 5 regarding
abortions has evolved into a much broader discussion on women’s rights.
I believe that Phillips does a good job of presenting the current
situation without allowing any bias to weaken her argument. She explains that
the male-dominated GOP leadership “are using the political process to advance
their anti-abortion agenda.” However, she explains that Democrats, too, would
likely advance their ideas if they were the majority. I think this is an
important point to make that brings attention to the problems that can be associated
with a legislation made up too heavily of of one political party with strong
opinions.
Throughout the opinion piece, Philips details a few recent events that
show evidence of the hostility towards women. The major issue, that of Senate
Bill 5, enacts certain requirements for women seeking abortions and includes
restrictions for abortions clinics which ultimately are aimed to drive them out
of business. Additionally, Perry vetoed an act earlier this month aimed at
ending pay discrimination against women. Both of these events contribute to
Phillips argument that Texas is dealing with a broad range of women’s issues.
Wendy Davis continues to be a voice for Texas women, which is proving to
be a difficult situation considering the political climate described above.
However, Philips believes that Davis’ filibuster of Senate Bill 5 has brought
much needed attention to women’s issues and seems to think the debate is
beginning to favor the democrats.
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