Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, whose 11-hour filibuster against a Pro-Life bill that would ban late-term abortion brought her notoriety, has admitted to two abortions. One occurred during Davis’ second trimester, and the other in her first, both in the 1990's, after she had given birth to her two other daughters.
In her memoir, “Forgetting to be Afraid,” Davis recounts the abortions. AP reports:
She writes that the ectopic pregnancy happened in 1994 during her first trimester… Davis said she and her former husband, Jeff, wound up expecting another child in 1996 after they decided to stop taking birth-control measures. During her second trimester, Davis said she took a blood test that could determine chromosomal or neural defects, which doctors first told her didn't warrant concern. After a later exam revealed the brain defect, Davis said she sought out opinions from multiple doctors, who told her the baby would be deaf, blind and in a permanent vegetative state if she survived delivery.
Tellingly, of Davis' second trimester abortion, she states:
At some point in the almost two weeks of second and third and fourth opinions and tortured decision making, I could feel her little body tremble violently, as if someone were applying an electric shock to her, and I knew then what we needed to do. She was suffering.
Wendy Davis clearly understands, first-hand, the science of fetal pain upon which HB 2’s late-term abortion ban hinged. Davis claims she did not talk about these abortions during her filibuster because the timing wasn't right. Perhaps, to recall watching one’s own unborn child writhe in pain die at your request while simultaneously advocating in favor of the same treatment for thousands of preborn Texans is emotionally ravaging.
Davis poignantly attests to her experience with the post-traumatic stress that many women experience following an abortion. While anti-Life politicians and media pundits unrelentingly attempt to normalize the brutality of late-term abortion – as we saw last week with PBS’s tax-funded broadcasting of After Tiller – Davis herself (perhaps unknowingly) testifies to the emotional scarring of abortion, confirming that she has never been the same:
An indescribable blackness followed. It was a deep, dark despair and grief, a heavy wave that crushed me, that made me wonder if I would ever surface… And when I finally did come through it, I emerged a different person. Changed. Forever changed.
The overall tragedy of Davis’ action was not lost on stalwart Pro-Life Attorney General Greg Abbott – the Republican gubernatorial candidate, who commented on the abortion revelation, saying, “The unspeakable pain of losing a child is beyond tragic for any parent. As a father, I grieve for the Davis family and for the loss of life.”