Wendy Davis prevented a Rick Perry-backed abortion bill from being finalized. | AP Photos Tables may turn on abortion in Texas

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a message for those hailing new liberal icon Wendy Davis for bringing down a restrictive state abortion measure: Enjoy it while it lasts.

Come Monday, the Texas Legislature will reconvene in special session, and enacting far-reaching abortion limits is a top Perry priority.


Davis became an overnight star this week after spearheading the filibuster in the state Senate, preventing the Perry-backed comprehensive abortion bill from being finalized before the session ended even though it had passed by 19-10. She earned praise from a slew of pro-abortion rights celebrities, from President Barack Obama to Lena Dunham; was a guest on the major news shows; picked up tens of thousands of Twitter followers; and sparked speculation about whether she will make a statewide run.

( PHOTOS: Wendy Davis's filibuster)

But if national trends are any indication, the liberal rejoicing may be short-lived. Eleven states so far have passed 20-week bans — or earlier — on most abortions. Four have been blocked at least for now by courts because they conflict with Roe v. Wade.

And in Texas, the political reality is strongly against Davis and her supporters.

“This is simply too important a cause to allow unruly actions of a few to stand in its way,” the Republican governor told the National Right to Life Convention in Dallas Tuesday. “And that is the reason I’ve announced that I’m bringing lawmakers back to Austin, Texas, to finish their business.” That includes banning most abortions after 20 weeks and approving related measures that could lead to the closure of most abortion clinics in Texas.

( Also on POLITICO: Perry: Davis didn't learn from herself)

Even Davis — the pink-sneakered state senator from Fort Worth who led a 13-hour filibuster on Tuesday — concedes that such a measure may pass this time around. Abortion legislation already passed the state House and it had the votes to pass the state Senate.

“You know, I was able to do this filibuster because this bill came to the floor on the last day of the special session and it made it possible to kill the bill as a consequence,” Davis said Thursday on “CBS This Morning.” “It’s not likely that they’ll make that same mistake again. Who knows. If they do, we’ll do everything we can to try and kill this bill.”

Perry took a personal swing at Davis in his Thursday speech, noting that for a time she was a single mother, and saying it was “unfortunate” that her success story hadn’t shaped her views on abortion.

“Rick Perry’s statement is without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds,” she swung back, according to Texas news reports. “They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view.”

Perry said the anti-abortion measures had support in Texas despite the loud protests in support of Davis — which Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called an “unruly mob.”

“Glad to see @GovernorPerry taking a stand for life and the unborn!” tweeted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after Perry announced that the abortion issue would again go up for consideration. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sent a letter to the National Right to Life convention underscoring his support.

The bill Perry is pushing would effectively close nearly every abortion-providing clinic in the Lone Star State after imposing tough new clinic requirements. In his address on Thursday, Perry invoked Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell who was charged with committing murder at his clinics.

“We’ve seen too many horror stories coming out of Philadelphia or out of Houston about unsafe, unsanitary abortion mills,” he said in making the case for the tough Texas law, which would also place new requirements on physicians performing abortions in the states.

The sweeping nature of the Texas multipronged abortion restrictions is unusual, said Elizabeth Nash, an expert in state-level policy at the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute. But it’s not unprecedented, she told POLITICO, pointing to Kansas and Arizona as other places that have passed comprehensive abortion policies.

“Abortion opponents are tenacious,” Nash said. “It will be a very hard slog for abortion rights supporters to beat this bill again. But they did it once; it’s possible to do it again. It just is clearly something that the leadership in the Texas Legislature is interested in pursuing.”

Davis said on Thursday that no matter what happens next week, there will be long-term political implications in the Lone Star State.

“Women and men across Texas are in an uproar about it, and I don’t expect that their concerns on this issue are going to go away with the passage of the law,” she said on CBS. “I think there will be political consequences in the future as people exercise their opinion on this issue at the ballot box.”

Another place this could play out: the courts. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month struck down an Arizona abortion ban at about 20 weeks, and a similar law was struck in Idaho. But the issue — as well as the related wave of new regulations being imposed on abortion clinics — could make its way to the Supreme Court.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards on Thursday struck a defiant tone, pledging to bring the fight again regardless of the special session decision.

“The nation is watching, and we will defeat this again,” she said in a statement. “People don’t want politicians making women’s private medical decisions, cutting off access to lifesaving preventive care or safe and legal abortion — and they absolutely will not stand for it. Here in Texas, we’ve started something no one can stop. We’ve lit the fuse in Austin — and the fire is catching all over the country.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the number of states that have 20-week or earlier abortion bans. It is 11.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Libby Isenstein @ 06/27/2013 04:36 PM CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the number of states that have 20-week or earlier abortion bans. It is 11.