Texas state Senator Wendy Davis' (D) new memoir, Forgetting to Be Afraid, describes the decision she and her then-husband made 17 years ago to end a pregnancy.
Davis writes about the baby, who the couple had named Tate Elise, as having been diagnosed with an acute brain abnormality. Davis and her husband Jeff visited several doctors, all of whom told them the baby would suffer and that the syndrome made the chance of life unlikely, the San Antonio Express-News reports. So, Davis' doctor "quieted" the baby, Davis writes, and then delivered her by cesarean section.
"An indescribable blackness followed," she writes. "It was a deep, dark despair and grief, a heavy wave that crushed me, that made me wonder if I would ever surface…And when I finally did come through it, I emerged a different person. Changed. Forever changed."
Davis is trailing in polls in her bid for Texas governor against Republican Greg Abbott. Abortion rights have been a major issue in the race so far. Abbott opposes abortion even when it relates to pregnancies resulting from rape and incest, while Davis launched her campaign following a filibuster against tighter abortion restrictions in the state.