Not all Texans are anti-choice conservatives. Here are some that Stand With Wendy. (DO512, Creative Commons)

If SB 5 had passed, every Texas woman who lived outside the “urban triangle” (Houston-Austin-San Antonio-Dallas/Fort Worth) would have no access to abortion or other forms of standard reproductive care. But pro-choice Texans didn’t allow that to happen. Eight hundred of them swarmed the state Capitol as part of a “citizen filibuster” to speak during the special session, until they were silenced by Republicans who voted to close debate.

Public outcry was not  pro-choice Texan's only weapon. State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) emerged as the heroine of the effort by flillibustering the bill for 12 hours on the Senate floor, standing upright and remaining on topic for the entire time. Her extraordinary strength and tenacity brought national attention to SB 5 that night, and was rewarded when the bill failed to come to a vote on the floor before the clock struck midnight.

So imagine my outrage when I log onto Twitter and see a torrent of tweets denouncing all Texans as anti-choice, misogynistic and archaic. My distaste was further exacerbated when my friend, an avid Tumblr user, complained to me that another social media platform contained similar attempts to write off the entire state of Texas as an irrevocable breeding ground for radical conservatism.

Such sentiments about Texas are justifiable in that the state is home to one of the most anti-choice governments in the U.S. It has also recently regained notoriety after executing its 500th inmate, making it by far the most death penalty-friendly state in the nation. Furthermore, its government’s apparent disregard for the needs of the poor and underserved (i.e. Governor Rick Perry refusing to accept the Medicaid expansion and denying coverage to 1.5 million uninsured Texans), as well as its repeated cutting of funding for public education and dogged insistence upon abstinence-only sex education have persistently caused the entire state and all of its inhabitants to be portrayed as radically conservative, socially unconscious pearl-clutchers.

But note that all these grievances are of a legislative nature. Texas has been, and might remain (at least for the near future) a red state, with the odd patch of blue located in Austin. Texas’s electoral votes have not gone to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1980, and a Republican-controlled state legislature has consistently redrawn district lines to ensure Republican wins in state elections, engendering a self-reproducing cycle of single-party control. 

Americans believe Texans are radically conservative because those who are in power in Texas and in control of its legislative public relations, really are. But although their political beliefs may represent those of at least 50 percent of Texans, that still leaves at most half of us who fight for our state’s right to adopt progressive policies. But in the case of the SB 5 debate, a lot more than half. According to a bipartisan poll conducted from June 17-19 this year, 80 percent of Texas voters disapprove of the legislature taking up abortion bills during the special session, 63 percent believe that Texas has enough abortion restrictions, and only 34 percent trust the Governor and legislature to make decisions about women’s health. 

Hundreds of pro-choice Texans crowded into the Capitol on the evening of July 26 to Stand With Wendy. Members of the Twitterv erse have taken to using the hashtag #PissedAtPerry to convey their sentiments regarding his renewed efforts to push SB5 through, and so have my fellow Texans. Though it may be simpler to view us through the stereotyped lens, don’t write us off just yet. 

Reach Columnist Ashley Yang here.