Politifact Falsely Claims Wendy Davis “Opposes Late-Term Abortions”

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 23, 2013   |   3:00PM   |   Austin, TX

Texas gubernatorial candidate and state legislator Wendy Davis is so supportive of late-term abortions that she single-handedly filibustered a bill in the Texas legislature that would have banned abortions in Texas after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Despite the national hoopla and attention that surrounded her filibuster — pink tennis shoes and all — the Politifact fact checking web site has the audacity today to claim that Davis “opposes late-term abortions.”

Politifact issued a critique of a Texas Right to Life radio ad against Davis that LifeNews recently highlighted. It’s analysis of the ad, which says Davis opposes limits on late-term abortions, is that it is “False.” From it’s piece:

The day state Sen. Wendy Davis announced her run for governor, Texas Right to Life announced it would air a radio ad calling her an “abortion zealot.”

Audio that the anti-abortion group released Oct. 3, 2013, of its ad said, “Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion.”

That’s a clear-cut statement, which the group also had on its website.

An Oct. 3, 2013, entry on the site said that Davis’s “views are so fanatical that she opposes any safeguards for the unborn at any stage of pregnancy, up to and including the final weeks before birth… (Davis) thoroughly aired her abortion views during her 11-hour filibuster in June in her failed attempt to block the new Pro-Life law from passing.”

Campaign spokesman Bo Delp told us by email it’s incorrect to say Davis opposes any limits. “Like most Texans, Sen. 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,” Delp said.

As anyone who has spent any time analyzing abortion law understands, a health exception is an open door to virtually every abortion. Politiact ignores that to focus on the Supreme Court ruling in Roe, omitting that it allowed more than 55 million abortions.

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Politifact maintains the ad is false despite listing other ways in which Davis has opposed common sense limits on abortions.

Elected to the Senate in 2008, Davis voted in 2009 and 2011 against state legislation requiring women to get sonograms before having an abortion. The measure passed into law in 2011 requires doctors performing abortions to provide a sonogram 24 hours before the abortion and describe what the image shows, including the fetus’ size, body features and internal organs.

It defends the claim the ad is false on Davis’ claim that she would not have filibustered the Texas legislation banning late-term abortions had it not also had language protecting women’s health from shoddy abortion facilities. Never mind that Davis would have still voted against such a bill and that she actually did filibuster the Texas late-term abortion ban and voted against it.

To rephrase Politifact’s conclusion: In short, Wendy Davis opposes late-term abortions all the way up to the day of birth — except when she claims she doesn’t.