The Pro-Abortion NewSpeak

Since her 11-hour filibuster of the Texas abortion restriction bill (S.B. No. 5), Senator Wendy Davis has been riding high as a symbol of women’s abortion rights.  Her actions has turned this once little known state senator into a national darling and a potential Democrat challenger in the upcoming gubernatorial race. Many are hoping that Wendy Davis will be the key in turning Texas into a blue state after 20 years of Republican control by beating Attorney Gen. Greg Abbot.

The challenge of course is convincing a socially conservative state such as Texas that Sen. Davis would be a perfect governor. After all, two-thirds of the state supported S.B. No. 5 even though the Democrats and the media made it seem otherwise. When the state Republicans pointed out that Sen. Davis’ filibuster might actually harm her chances at the governorship, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said,

We really are the party that is the right to life party, not the Republicans….They care only about something that is going on in the womb but they don’t care anything after that. And as a result of that, I promise you that as a result of Rick Perry’s decision to deny the $100 billion of expanded Medicaid coverage, hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Texas will die.

It is highly unlikely that the average Texas voter would buy into this Orwellian NewSpeak thrown out there by Mr. Hinojosa.  For one thing, the so-called $100 billion dollar expanded Medicaid coverage Mr. Hinojosa speaks of is a Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.  This expansion, which is paid for by the federal government during the first 3 years, will eventually become nearly the sole burden of the states by 2020.  Another thing that would make the average Texas balk at the new pro-abortion label coined by Mr. Hinojosa is that Sen. Davis and many of the pro-abortion groups fought S.B. No. 5 from the very beginning.

S.B. No. 5 was a bill that protected not only unborn babies in the late term of pregnancy but also women who were seeking abortions.  If you listen to the media, the only thing you would have heard about is how the bill banned late term abortions by limiting abortions to before 20 weeks gestation.  But if one would read the 20-page bill, one would find that the limitation comes with the exception of saving the life of the mother or if the baby has severe fetal abnormalities.  Another thing that was not mentioned is the bill ensured that there was improved care for the women seeking abortions.  Here are some of the requirements under the bill:

• Require that only licensed physicians perform abortions.
• Require that physicians have active admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
• Provide OB/GYN healthcare services.
• Provide pregnant women with a phone number which she may be able to reach a physician or health care personnel of the facility she received her abortion so she can ask healthcare related questions.
• Require the drugs used to perform the abortion be dispensed by a physician.
• Require that the physician use FDA approved drugs to perform abortion.
• Report any adverse effects from said drugs used for the abortion to the Medwatch Reporting System.
• Require the physician schedule a follow up visit for the woman.
• Require the facility where the abortions are performed meet the minimum standard adopted for ambulatory surgical centers.

In other words, S.B. No. 5 demanded that the abortion clinics in the state of Texas treat women the same way any other licensed doctor’s office treats their patients.  This is the type of life- saving standards Sen. Davis and the newly coined “right to life” party fought against.  Thankfully the bill passed anyway despite the actions of Sen. Davis.  But even as Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill into law, the pro-abortion protesters chanted “SHAME” while holding coat hangers in the capitol rotunda.  Apparently their chants of shame were silent during the Kermit Gosnell trial.  In fact they might agree with Gosnell when he says he was doing a service by “waging a war on poverty”.

Sen. Davis decided to feign ignorance when asked the difference between an illegal late term abortion and the ones that Kermit Gosnell performed.  Sen. Davis claimed she didn’t know what happened in Gosnell’s clinic even though it made world news by the time she filibustered S.B. No. 5.  But even though she didn’t know what happened in that case she claims that the new law won’t ensure safe abortions in Texas.  She said in an interview with The Weekly Standard:

The state of the law obviously has to assure that doctors are providing safe procedures for women and that proper oversight by the health and human services department is being given. It sounds as though there was a huge gap in that oversight, and no one can defend that. But that’s not the landscape of what’s happening in Texas.

Apparently Sen. Davis also never heard of Dr. (and I use the title loosely) Douglas Karpen who appears puts Kermit Gosnell to shame.  Lt. Governor David Dewhurst demanded an investigation into Karpen’s clinic one month before Sen. Davis’ famous filibuster of S.B. No. 5 along with 20 state lawmakers.  I guess she must not have gotten the memo.  But that’s the luxury of being a member of the “right to life party”.  You can feign ignorance in the face of true atrocities, blame the pro-life movement for said atrocities, and then gain fame and fortune as you fight to keep the status quo under the guise of women’s health.   George Orwell would be disgusted.