Democratic candidate for Texas governor reveals abortions: report

[September 06, 2014]  (Reuters) - Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor who was catapulted to national fame last year for her 10-hour filibuster against abortion restrictions, revealed in her memoir she ended two pregnancies of her own, the San Antonio Express-News reported on Friday.

State Senator Davis wrote in her book, "Forgetting to Be Afraid," which is due out next week, that she terminated the pregnancies during the 1990s for medical reasons, the Express-News reported.

She had her unborn child, Tate Elise, aborted in 1997 because it had developed serious brain complications and would "tremble violently, as if someone were applying an electric shock to her," the Express-News said.

Davis also wrote that she was forced to cancel another pregnancy after the embryo implanted outside of her uterus, the Express-News reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The Express-News said it had obtained a copy of the memoir in advance.
 

"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," Davis said according to the Express-News. "And when I finally did come through it, I emerged a different person. Changed. Forever changed," she added.

Davis, with an inspiring life story going from a single mother in a trailer park to a Harvard Law School graduate, became the brightest star in the U.S. political universe when she donned pink tennis shoes and spent half a day filibustering sweeping abortion restrictions last year.

She has portrayed her Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, as part of a 'good old boys' network more interested in enriching each other than helping voters.

Davis has taken hits when it was found she embellished parts of her biography, yet remains a prominent candidate who can raise funds among major donors.

Davis currently trails Abbott in the polls, though she has narrowed the gap in recent weeks.

Abbott's campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Republicans have won every statewide election in Texas since 1994, helping turn the state with a $1.4 trillion annual economy into an incubator for conservative policies that are often copied by other states.

But demographics have been shifting. Hispanics, who tend to vote for Democrats, are poised to be the majority group in the state by 2030 under current trends.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Matt Driskill)

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