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Video taken by a demonstrator at Friday’s protest of an anti-abortion bill at the Texas State Capitol showed a woman saying she was publicly embarassed by Republican senators’ ban on tampons and sanitary pads from the premises.

In the footage, the unidentified woman says a state trooper “took away my Maxi-Pads, and made a huge deal out of flashing them around, and then saying that I couldn’t go into the gallery, you know, that I couldn’t take Maxi-Pads into the gallery. I’ve never been so humiliated in my life.”

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The demonstrator who shot the video, 31-year-old Andrea Hughes, told The Raw Story the woman’s tearful confession was shot in the office of state Rep. Jessica Farrar (D). Hughes also corroborated the woman’s story.

“She was crying when she came in crying, talking about how someone had confiscated her sanitary pads and was waving them around like a trophy,” Hughes said. “[The woman said] the state trooper was chasing her to the elevator, yelling at her that if she didn’t like it, she could get out of the Capitol.”

The trooper’s actions were in keeping with an attempt to bar items “that can be thrown at senators” from being taken into the gallery as lawmakers debate House Bill 2, which would result in the closing of all but five abortion providers in the state. The bill is expected to pass along partisan lines either late Friday or early Saturday.

“This is too much,” the woman says in the video. “This is like some kind of third-world country that we’re in all of a sudden.”

After the Senate became the target of online derision, the ban on hygienic products was revoked Friday afternoon.

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“They’re taking water, hand sanitizer, lotion, cosmetics,” Hughes said in a telephone interview. “They’ve stopped taking tampons and sanitary pads, though, thankfully.”

While the debate continued into the evening, Hughes said the woman eventually left the Capitol, but managed to calm down beforehand.

“She stayed for awhile and she watched the senate with us on the TV, and then I think she had to go home,” Hughes said. “But she was in good spirits when she left.”

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Watch the video, shot by Hughes and shared with The Raw Story on Friday, below.

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[h/t AmericaBlog]

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