 AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who became a national political sensation by filibustering her state's tough new restrictions on abortion, discloses in her upcoming memoir that she had an abortion in the 1990s after discovering that the fetus had a severe brain abnormality. The Associated Press purchased an early copy of the book, which goes on sale Tuesday. Copies will be available Monday at a Fort Worth book signing by Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor against Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott. After getting several medical opinions and feeling the baby they had named Tate Elise “tremble violently, as if someone were applying an electric shock to her” in the womb, she said the decision was clear. “She was suffering,” Davis wrote. She goes on to say that an "indescribable blackness followed" the pregnancy and that the loss left her forever changed. Davis launched her campaign last year after rising to national prominence with her fight against tighter abortion restrictions through a filibuster in which she shared women's personal stories. Davis says she considered revealing the terminated pregnancies during her nearly 13-hour speech on the floor of the Texas Senate last summer — but decided against it, saying "such an unexpected and dramatically personal confession would overshadow the events of the day." Davis reveals in a new... (Associated Press) 
 
 In "Forgetting to be Afraid," Davis also writes about ending an earlier ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. Ann Richards praised Davis' "unwavering courage" 
 
 "We are grateful to her for sharing her story and shining a light on a subject that is too often hidden in the shadows of shame and stigma by people like Greg Abbott and his allies," Richards said. The memoir adds layers of detail to her story of a hardscrabble life after her father left their family; her struggles to pay the bills as a young mother after her first marriage ended; and community college as the first step on an upward path including graduation from Harvard Law School and service on the Fort Worth City Council and in the state Senate. He died last year, before she announced for governor.
– Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis' new memoir is dedicated in part to daughters Amber, Dru, and Tate, and those familiar with Davis' life story might be puzzled by the last name on that list. That's because Davis is revealing for the first time that Tate is the unborn child that she and her husband aborted in the second trimester, after doctors discovered a severe brain abnormality. The San Antonio Express-News and the AP obtained advanced copies, and the news is generating headlines given that Davis shot to national fame while filibustering against an abortion bill in Texas. Davis writes that she decided to abort in 1996 after doctors said the baby would be blind, deaf, and in a vegetative state if she survived the pregnancy. Davis also felt the fetus “tremble violently" in the womb, "as if someone were applying an electric shock to her, and I knew then what I needed to do. She was suffering." Her doctor "quieted" the unborn child's heart and delivered her by C-section. Davis and her husband had Tate baptized. After the abortion, "an indescribable blackness followed," writes Davis in Forgetting to Be Afraid, "and when I finally did come through it, I emerged a different person." Davis also writes of a previously disclosed procedure to terminate an earlier ectopic pregnancy in which the embryo was implanted outside the uterus. She says she opted not to talk about either case during her famous filibuster because she feared it would "overshadow the events of the day."