CBS "Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer" - Transcript - Womens Health

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: And welcome back to FACE THE NATION. Our next guest, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis has a wonderful biography, the daughter of a single mother. She raised two daughters as a single mom herself. She worked her way through Tarrant County Community College, then TCU. And, full disclosure here, that's my school in my hometown, and she went on to graduate from Harvard Law, which I'm sure wasn't as tough as TCU. But few outside Texas knew of her until last week when she became an overnight sensation. When Wendy Davis spent eleven hours filibustering a bill to put new limits on abortion in the Texas Senate, the nation took notice. Hundreds of supporters created such a ruckus, the legislative session ended before the Senate could act on the bill. But that's far from the end of it. Texas Governor Rick Perry has called another special session of the legislature to bring up the bill again and he set the stage with a remarkably personal statement about the senator.

GOVERNOR RICK PERRY: She was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example: that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Perry managed to go beyond that a short time later.

GOVERNOR RICK PERRY: She didn't come from particularly good circumstances. What if her mom had said, you know, I just can't do this.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Wendy Davis joins us now from Fort Worth, Texas. Senator, what went through your mind when you heard the governor? Because, basically, what he was saying was what would have happened if-- if your mother had had an abortion

STATE SENATOR WENDY DAVIS (D-Texas): Well, what went through my mind was that that was a terribly personal thing to say. And, of course, I've been in the political arena for some time. It takes a lot to offend me. But what I was offended about was the statement that it makes on behalf of women throughout the state of Texas. I think it showed disregard for the fact that we all, we each, own our own personal history. We make choices and-- and have the opportunity to take chances that present themselves to us. What this is about is making sure that women across the state of Texas have the same opportunity to make those choices and have the same chances that I had.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, after coming under these attacks, do you regret taking the front row that you did on this and leading this charge?

STATE SENATOR WENDY DAVIS: I think it was so important for us to stand up. And I want to make sure and say that my Senate Democratic caucus was all-- each of us were willing to do this. And-- and I was proud to be the person selected because I'm a woman and a mother of two daughters. But the important thing that happened here was we were giving voice to thousands and thousands of women across the state of Texas who felt that they'd been cut off from this dialogue. Who wanted to share their personal stories and had not been able to with a hearing being artificially closed off, even though, they had waited for many hours. And it gave a chance to give voice to the personal stories and testimonies that they wanted to be told.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think you can actually stop this from happening because, as you well know, the governor has called another special session of the legislature which starts tomorrow? You're going to have a difficult time blocking it this time.

STATE SENATOR WENDY DAVIS: You know they-- they mismanaged the clock terribly last time and they also ran roughshod over a lot of our Senate rules and traditions to try to ram this bill through. And-- and they'll probably be a little bit smarter about how they try to move this bill in this next session starting on Monday. But what they now have to confront is that the eyes of Texas, the eyes of the country are watching. And they are going to be held accountable for the decisions that they make in this process. And if people continue to see that their voices are being ignored, I think we are going to see a long-term sustained response to that in the state of Texas.

BOB SCHIEFFER: There is a poll out down there by the Texas Tribune that says sixty percent of Texans support banning abortions after twenty weeks, which is one of the things that this bill would do. It also closes down a lot of places where women can now get abortions. Do you feel that being the case isn't that going to make it even more difficult for you?

STATE SENATOR WENDY DAVIS: You know I think really what's happening here, Bob, is politicians are using this issue to boost their own political aspirations, their own political ambitions. And they're bullying women and their liberties, their personal constitutionally guaranteed liberties in the process. And it sets up, unfortunately, for women in Texas, a very dangerous place for their reproductive rights and health care. In Texas we have forty-two clinics right now, only thirty-- only five, excuse me, would remain open if this bill were to pass. And people who are completely objective and outside the political dialogue, like the American Obstetrics and Gynecology College, are saying to us if this happens in Texas, women in impoverished remote areas of Texas, and, believe me, that means thousands and thousands and thousands of women will no longer have access to this safe reproductive health care. And we all know what happens in the context of the lack of that access. We've seen it before in our country's history and I fear that for their political ambitions Governor Perry and Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst are willing to cast that aside, put women in harm's way in order for them to step up on the political ladder.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, Senator, we want to thank you very much for joining us this morning. And we will be back in one minute with our panel for some analysis.

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