RICK PERRY: Abortion Bill Filibusterer Wendy Davis 'Hasn't Learned From Her Own Example' Of Being A Teenage Mother
"She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother herself," Perry said at the National Right to Life convention in Dallas on Thursday.
"She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas senate. It is 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."
On Tuesday, Davis spent more than 11 hours participating in a standing filibuster of SB5, a bill that would have imposed some of the most restrictive measures on abortion in the nation. Texas senate Democrats chose Davis to lead the filibuster efforts because of her background. Davis became a single mother at the age of 19, and was also the daughter of a single mother.
Perry on Wednesday announced a July 1 special session of the Texas legislature to address "unfinished business" from the last session — most prominently the abortion legislation.
"What we witnessed Tuesday was nothing more than the hijacking of the Democratic process," Perry said at the conference.
The proposed abortion legislation would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and impose new regulations on abortion clinics, such as a requirement that doctors providing abortions have admitting procedures at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.
Supporters contend that the new requirements would improve patient care, but opponents claim they are a pretext designed to close as many as 37 of Texas' 42 abortion clinics.
ThinkProgress clipped video of Perry's comments: