As Texas State Senator Wendy Davis continues to be fawned over by liberals for her filibuster of SB 5, Texas’ latest abortion law, the media have also given her political cover by omitting key details about the bill. It would have banned abortions at 20-weeks and forced clinics to undergo modifications to be reclassified as a surgical centers. After all, a late term abortion is surgery at that point.
Instead, ABC and NBC decided to focus on how this bill will shut down abortion clinics. CBS opted to settle with Davis’ opinion about the bill’s impact on women’s health. You can guess how she thought about that angle.
In addition to excising a key details about SB 5, there’s been little attention given to the various death threats pro-life legislators have endured since Davis decided to use abortion to propel her into the national spotlight. Also, the major networks have devoted little, if any, coverage given to the proponents of the new law. Lastly, to cut into the developing “war on women” narrative, it's women that have spearheaded the fight for the bill’s passage.
Days after Davis killed the bill, the major networks NBC, ABC, and CBS, continued to shower the legislator with adoration on the Sunday morning talk show circuit. Newsbusters colleague Matthew Balan noted on July 1 how NBC’s Janet Shamlian touted Davis for leading an “epic eleven-hour filibuster.” CBS’ Bob Schieffer noted Davis “wonderful biography,” and ABC’s Jeff Zeleny conducted a fluff interview for ABC’s This Week.
During the interview, Zeleny touched upon Perry’s remarks about Davis at the National Right to Life Convention.
GOV. RICK PERRY, (R), TEXAS (from speech at National Right To Life convention): She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother herself. It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example.
JEFF ZELENY: Is that offensive?
WENDY DAVIS: You know, what's offensive to me, is that he's made this very personal to Texans overall. He's awfully fond of talking the talk of small government, but this is big government intrusion. And it's very unfortunate and sad that people's personal health and safety are at risk for his political purposes.
Speaking to Davis’ remarks about people’s health, she executed her filibuster on June 25 saying, “Lawmakers, either get out of the vagina business or go to medical school.” As Bryan Preston at PJ Media pointed out on July 1, the statement is ironic since one of Davis’ colleagues in the Texas Senate, Donna Campbell, is a doctor. She:
[A]lso led the fight to pass the bill in the Texas Senate. State Sen. Donna Campbell represents District 25 in central Texas. She comes to the Texas Senate with an educational and career background that would earn her fawning coverage from one end of this country to another, but for a couple of inconvenient facts.
Occupation: Emergency Room Physician
Education: B.S. Central State University; M.N. Texas Women’s University; M.D. Texas Tech Health Science Center; General Surgical Internship, Methodist Hospital of Dallas; Residency in Ophthalmology, University of Texas Health Science Center Houston
So, when will any of the major networks give Texas Sen. Donna Campbell, a medical doctor and proponent of SB 5, a chance to give the other side of the argument? Then again, Campbell is probably more focused on keeping her family safe. As her spokesman Jon Oliver said, she has received threats from pro-abortion activists such as:
“I hope you’re raped” and “I hope your daughter’s raped.”
“Lots of language — ‘You’re an effin’ blank,’ ‘You are a traitor to women’ — those kind of things,” Oliver says. “I wouldn’t say anything’s necessarily a direct threat, but they’re the kind of e-mails that make you a little nervous, especially when you start talking about family members: ‘I hope your family members are raped.’”
One could argue that having your family threatened with rape is more "offensive," than Perry's remarks, which was more of a compliment concerning Davis' achievements in her life.
