State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, broke a glass table when he smashed his gavel on its surface to stop the testimony of an intern with NARAL Pro-Choice Texas during a Wednesday hearing, according to reports.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Maggie Hennessy was speaking against Senate Bill 415, which would "prohibit certain dismemberment abortions," when Schwertner interrupted her to tell her that her "time is done."
Hennessy continued, saying “I urge you all to stop playing with women’s health care as if it is your own political puppet,” before Schwertner hit his gavel with a loud crack.
Alexa Garcia-Ditta, communications and policy initiatives director at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, took a picture of the broken table following the hearing and tweeted it out, writing that “Schwertner hit the table so hard w/ his gavel demanding that our intern stop talking during her testimony that he broke the glass.”
The Express-News reported that Schwertner acknowledged he may have overexerted, saying, “I may need to dial it back to just one bowl of Wheaties in the morning.”
You can watch the clip of Schwertner breaking the table on Jezebel, and the video of the full hearing here.
Read more on the ongoing debate surrounding abortion in the Texas Senate here.
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