WASHINGTON — A woman named Kate wore a Dallas Cowboys ball cap and held a sign proclaiming herself as a pro-choice Texan.
She didn’t want to reveal her last name, but said she was already in the D.C. area for family reasons and couldn’t fly home to Texas without making an appearance outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
“My mom marched for this in the 60s and she never thought I’d have to,” she said. “Everyone says you’re born in Texas, you die in Texas. But I don’t want to die in Greg Abbott’s Texas.”
Only a few steps away physically, but light years away philosophically, was Vanessa Sivadge from Houston.
“I’m so proud of our governor who’s taken heroic steps for the sanctity of life for our unborn,” she said. “Abortion is the greatest atrocity in our generation and I’m here to make sure it’s ended in my lifetime.”
Perhaps the loudest Texas woman in the crowd of demonstrators was Kenya Martin.
She’s an abortion advocate who spoke at a rally organized by Planned Parenthood.
She moved from Houston to Virginia within the last few years.
“The fact that I’m a Texan all the way to my soul – I am devastated. I am disappointed in my home state,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to feel shameful for making the decision that was best for ourselves and our families.”
Those three women joined hundreds of others demonstrating outside the court.
Protests remained civil, but both sides clashed as they tried to raise their signs higher and their voices louder than the opposition.
Looking on was State Sen. Bryan Hughes, a republican from Mineola, who authored the abortion law in question.
“This is free speech, the ultimate American process,” he said looking on at the gathering outside the court.
Hughes and dozens of others joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a rally after arguments over SB 8 wrapped up inside the court.
Paxton did not argue the case.
Texas’s Solicitor General Judd Stone did.
Stone earned his law degree in Texas as did one of the attorneys representing Whole Women’s Health, a clinic arguing it should be given the right to sue the state over the way SB 8 is enforced.
Supreme Court justices questioned Stone about whether Texas’s abortion law gives other states an opening to pass laws interfering with other rights – like gay marriage or the second amendment.
Paxton said that line of questioning didn’t bother him.
“Each state has a responsibility to do what they think is right,” he said, adding how proud he was of Texas’s law.
Next to Paxton was his wife, State Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican from McKinney and a handful of other state lawmakers.
Hughes said he knows people outside of Texas are questioning the constitutionality of his law.
But he doesn’t mind.
“If you look in the constitution, you’ll find in 1973 that seven old men on this supreme court created this right. It’s not in the constitution, the constitution guarantees the right to life and the pursuit of happiness.”