Filibustering heroine state Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) was on Meet the Press, where she disabused the public of the idea that being pro choice is anything other than standing up against intrusions against personal liberty.
Perry also thought he could bully Davis by using her personal life against her, but that didn’t work out so well.
Video from Meet The Press:
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Transcript:
Gregory: Abortion rights a big issue around the country as states debate this, debate gay marriage. State Senator Wendy Davis joins me from Texas. she made a big splash this week taking on a bill that would restrict abortion rights in the Texas legislature, taking on Governor Perry as well. Senator Davis, welcome to Meet The Press.
Sen. Wendy Davis: Thank you. Good Morning, David.
Gregory: For all that you have achieved in terms of your profile and your views, are you not just delaying the inevitable? Governor Perry has another special session that is scheduled this bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks likely to become law.
Davis: Well, I don’t think it’s ever acceptable to concede the argument on incredibly important issues like this. and what we saw in the capitol last week, really, was people who have grown weary of our politicians trying to boost their own political careers on the backs of women by bullying them and others, honestly, in order to promote agendas that help them personally. These are matters of personal liberty. In Texas, we hold very dear to intrusions against our personal liberty. We fight very hard against that. and we will fight as we begin the session again on Monday. I don’t —
Gregory: Go ahead. finish your thought. I’m sorry.
Davis: I was just going to say, I don’t think that we’ll concede that the battle is over. And even if the this bill passes, obviously there will be challenges to it going forward.
….
(Video of Perry’s comments about Davis.)
Gregory: You don’t accept the notion that while he was certainly disagreeing with you he was holding up your life story in a way to co compliment you.
Davis: David, my life story is something that obviously belongs to me very personally. and the fact of the matter is that I had choices and chances and opportunities that were provided to me based on the way I was able to direct my own decision-making. And what I’m working to fight for is to make sure that all women have are the ability to do that. I think some of the comments that he made really demeaned the high office that he holds, and I think that’s why we saw such a strong reaction to it.
Governor Perry better look out, because state Senator Wendy Davis has a national profile now, and she’s already making noise about running for Governor in 2014. “A strategist for Texas Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis said Friday that she is ‘looking very closely’ at a run for statewide office, including the governorship, in 2014,” Politico reported.
If Perry wants to set himself up as the bully of Wendy Davis along with bullying women and families out of the right to make their own medical choices and family planning decisions, Senator Davis is fine with that.
While Republicans are happily making noise about a National Journal poll that was worded so as to garner support for the GOP-led attempt to ban abortions after 20 weeks, a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll of Texans on the issue found that the majority do not think the Governor or the legislature should be making these choices for individuals. “Support for a woman’s ability to make decisions on abortion for herself is both broad and deep, including among Independents (76 percent) and Republicans (61 percent).”
By a large majority, Texans, including Republicans, would prefer to see their politicians working on jobs and the economy rather than trying to limit abortion.
Governor Perry seems to think that bullying women is a political winner for him, but he’s finding out that Senator Wendy Davis isn’t an easy target. He tried to use her personal life against her, actually mansplaining that she should have learned to limit other women’s freedom and liberty from her own example:
“In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances, the daughter of a single mother and a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It’s just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example: that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential; that every life is precious.”
If every life was indeed “precious”, then Governor Perry would never presume to grant himself Kingly authority over women’s health choices, because women are “life” too. But Perry and his gang of Texas legislators do not understand that the public does not trust them with this power.
Who in the Hell does Governor Rick Perry think he is? Oh, just the very conservative, porn-investing “family values” governor of a state that is rapidly shifting demographically. What do you get when you try to steal women’s liberty from them, while trying to publicly shame their heroine for being the daughter of a single mother and being a single mother herself?
You get Wendy Davis as a possible 2014 contender. Good luck with that, Governor.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
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