Wendy Davis on Abortion-Rights Win and Why Women Should Fear Trump
Three years ago, almost to the day, Wendy Davis filibustered for 13 hours against a piece of Texas legislation designed to drastically reduce access to abortion in the state, especially for Texas’ most vulnerable individuals.
Despite Davis’ efforts, and the national attention she brought to the issue, the bill ended up passing during a special session of the state legislature, and a nasty and prolonged legal battle ensued. We saw the culmination of that battle this morning, when the Supreme Court issued a decision in favor of the Texas abortion provider that was fighting to keep its doors — and the doors of other clinics that have been forced to close under HB 2 — open in the state.
Davis, who recently launched a women’s-rights nonprofit, talked to Rolling Stone shortly after the decision came down about how it feels to finally get some good news in the realm of reproductive rights, her hopes and fears about the upcoming election and why she’s hopeful for the future of gender equality.
How does this moment feel?
So gratifying. I truly believed this day would come, but even in the face of that optimism, to have it be a reality is pretty remarkable.
Do you feel vindicated?
I do. Not for me, but for the women who are going to be protected by virtue of the Court’s decision today, not just in Texas, but around the country. An opinion against us would have surely led to copycat laws, and more and more women losing access to vital health care.
There are still many hurdles to jump in the fight for full reproductive freedom. Where do you think we’re headed from here?
I’m very hopeful. If we’d had a more neutral decision from the Court, I might not be saying that, but this was a decisive opinion. Justice Kennedy, who could’ve taken a much more watered-down approach, joined the majority in this case — even he was very assertive in his understanding that this law was created as a sham attempt to close down women’s access to safe and legal abortion. The majority of the justices saw through that sham: the characterization that these laws were created to protect women’s health, when nowhere in this process was a single legislator able to point to any actual data that indicated women would be made safer by this law.
What does the decision mean for women in Texas in particular?
It’s going to take some time for the state’s abortion clinics [that had been shuttered under HB 2] to reopen. But I know there’s a tremendous commitment on the part of health care providers in our state to make sure that happens. What this decision means for Texas women is that their constitutional rights have been protected, it means that they’ve been heard, and it means that legislators will be extremely challenged if they try to move forward with other attempts to foreclose on access to safe and legal abortion, in our state and in this country.
I want to ask you a bit about the election. You’re supporting Hillary Clinton. What are your hopes for her presidency?
I hope more than anything that Hillary is able to unify us. She has an unbelievable record of being the kind of person who rolls her sleeves up and really gets down in the nitty-gritty of what it means to govern. And we need that. We need someone who’s going to pull legislators from both sides of the aisle together and sit down with them and work toward consensus. I know she’s committed to that, and I know the American people desperately want to see us get to a place where we can once again decide to work together.
What about on reproductive rights in particular? So many of these battles play out at the state level. What do you hope she’d be able to do if elected?
Hillary brings with her a full umbrella of policy ideas — and ideals — that understand the challenges and opportunities of what it means to be a woman in America today. As I’ve said quite a lot on the campaign trail for her, we’ve had friends in the White House before, but we’ve never had a champion. With her, we’re going to have someone who brings with her the experience of what it means to be a woman in this country, and her unique perspective and understanding about what needs to happen to optimize our opportunities. She’s going to fight for those things — not just sign them when they come across her desk, but fight for them.