Wendy Davis: Sure, I'd Support a Ban on Abortions After 20 Weeks

In recent weeks, Texas Democrat governor candidate Wendy Davis — the one who became world famous for filibustering a widely supported law that bans abortion after 20 weeks and upgrades medical standards in abortion clinics — has offered new, more conservative stances on a range of issues. Davis, rated as the most leftist member of the state Senate, has come out in favor of open firearm carry and even claimed to be “pro-life.” Both of those positions do not square with her record, and have drawn fire from her own party. Davis tried to kick gun shows off city property when she was on the Fort Worth city council. She is not pro-life, if the term has any meaning at all.

Now, Davis tells the Dallas Morning News that she favors part of the law that she became famous for filibustering against last summer.

Wendy Davis said Tuesday that she would have supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor.

Davis, a Fort Worth senator and the likely Democratic nominee for governor, told The Dallas Morning News’ editorial board that less than one-half of 1 percent of Texas abortions occur after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Most of those were in cases where fetal abnormalities were evident or there were grave risks to the health of the woman.

“I would line up with most people in Texas who would prefer that that’s not something that happens outside of those two arenas,” Davis said.

But the Democrat said the state’s new abortion law didn’t give priority to women in those circumstances. The law allows for exceptions for fetal abnormalities and a threat to the woman’s life, but Davis said those didn’t go far enough.

“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 said.

None of that makes any sense at all. The law that Davis filibustered was co-sponsored by two women, state Sen. Dr. Donna Campbell in the Senate and state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg in the state House. Yet Davis and the Democrats have decried the law that she filibustered as “anti-woman” and even claimed that in blocking that law, Davis and the Democrats were “standing with women.”

Sure, other than the majority of women who support that law, and the two women who sponsored it — one of whom is an ER physician — Davis can be said to be “standing with women.” Some women, the ones who operate abortion industry leader Planned Parenthood.

The Texas law was spurred by the grisly case of abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell in Pennsylvania. Gosnell conducted late-term abortions in a substandard, filthy clinic. He kept souvenirs of his kills and he endangered the lives of women for decades. He is serving life in prison for his heinous crimes.

Davis told reporter John McCormack that she wasn’t familiar with the Gosnell case at all when she filibustered the law that was spawned by that case. Though Davis did claim that Gosnell operated his slaughterhouse in an ambulatory surgery center — which was not true, and which the Texas law that Davis opposed corrected for abortion clinics in the state.

So, Wendy Davis doesn’t do her homework, doesn’t understand the law she became famous for opposing, but now says she would support part of that law.

What are Texans supposed to make of Wendy Davis now?

Wendy Davis has either become thoroughly confused on what she really believes, has no core beliefs and does not really know very much, or she is just trying to confuse all of Texas with all of these absurd, near daily position changes.