Round Two in the Texas battle to limit abortions to 20 weeks and to require that abortionists meet the same standards as any other ambulatory surgical center started yesterday. Round One went to state Senator Wendy Davis, whose filibuster lasted almost long enough to stop the bill in the previous session, and to the mob that disrupted the legislature long enough to kill SB5. Pro-abortion forces in Texas wanted a rematch, but Davis says that she has no plans to conduct another filibuster (via LifeNews):

A spokesman for Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, who stood and spoke for more than 12 hours to help kill the bill last week, says she won’t filibuster the legislation a second time.

“You can’t have a 30-day filibuster,” says spokesman Rick Svatora. “The point is [Republicans] mismanaged things so badly the first time around it allowed a filibuster to occur. The Lt. Gov. [David Dewhurst] has pledged he won’t allow that to happen this time around.”

Really?  Not even an attempt?  Davis didn’t have to stage a 30-day filibuster the last time, thanks to complacent Republicans who didn’t anticipate the last-day tactic.  Even with that, Davis didn’t actually succeed in blocking the vote; Republicans used parliamentary tactics to finally end her floor time and had long enough to get the vote accomplished.  The remaining time got stolen from the legislature by observers in the gallery, who erupted in protest and refused to allow the chamber to come to order.  Republicans plan to prepare for that this time around, too, as Dewhurst told me last week.

One might think that Davis would at least offer a pro forma attempt at a filibuster, if for no other reason than to satisfy her legion of fans outside of Texas, which includes more than a few members of the media.  That cheering section doesn’t include Kirsten Powers, as she explains at The Daily Beast:

So no, I don’t stand with Wendy. Nor do most women, as it turns out. According to a June National Journal poll, 50 percent of women support, and 43 percent oppose, a ban on abortion after 20 weeks, except in cases of rape and incest.

One can assume I am also not the only woman in America who is really tiring of the Wendys of the world claiming to represent “women’s rights” in their quest to mainstream a medical procedure—elective late-term abortion—that most of the civilized world finds barbaric and abhorrent. In many European countries, you can’t get an abortion past 12 weeks, except in narrow circumstances. Gallup reported in January that 80 percent of Americans think abortion should be illegal in the third trimester, and 64 percent think it should be illegal in the second trimester.

If the majority of Americans oppose elective late-term abortion, why do we have Davis complaining to CBS’s Bob Schieffer that the male politicians who are championing the late-term abortion ban are “bullying women”? Maybe it’s she who is bullying the rest of us into supporting a view that is mocked by scientific advancement; namely 3-D sonograms. Maybe we should be thankful for the men and wonder what is wrong with the women who think protecting the right to abort your baby for any reason up to the 26th week is a “human right.”

Heck, even Wendy doesn’t plan to stand with Wendy this time around.