Wendy Davis Could Support 20-Week Abortion Ban
Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who catapulted to fame last summer when she filibustered a Texas abortion restrictions bill, is now saying she could have supported one of the elements of the bill she tried to stop - the 20-week abortion ban.
In an editorial board meeting with the Dallas Morning News, Davis, who is running for governor in Texas, said she could have backed a ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks if the law deferred to a woman and her doctor. The bill she filibustered in her pink running shoes last summer included a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, but Davis said it did not include enough protections for a woman and her doctor to make the decision.
"My concern, even in the way the 20-week ban was written in this particular bill, was that it didn't give enough deference between a woman and her doctor making this difficult decision, and instead tried to legislatively define what it was," Davis told the Dallas Morning News.
"It was the least objectionable," she said. "I would have and could have voted to allow that to go through, if I felt like we had tightly defined the ability for a woman and a doctor to be making this decision together and not have the legislature get too deep in the weeds of how we would describe when that was appropriate."
A spokesperson for Davis pointed out the campaign previously said in October that Davis "opposes late-term abortions except when the life or health of the mother is endangered, in cases of rape or incest or in the case of severe and irreversible fetal abnormalities."
The bill also established new standards for abortion clinics, which some argued could have caused many clinics in the state to close. Despite Davis' filibuster, the state legislature eventually passed the bill, but portions of it are under court review.
In the same meeting with the Dallas Morning News, Davis said she supports the use of medicinal marijuana and would consider decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana.