Texas Democrat Wendy Davis tells of her abortion in new memoir

In a memoir set to be released next week, Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, reveals that she terminated a pregnancy 17 years ago after learning the fetus suffered from a severe brain abnormality.

A state senator from Fort Worth, Davis raised her national political profile last year when she waged an 11-hour filibuster in opposition to a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The measure eventually passed through the state Legislature and was signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

In her book, whose details were first reported by the San Antonio Express-News, Davis wrote of learning in 1997 when she was pregnant with her third child, a girl, that the fetus suffered from a condition that would lead to death. Medical diagnoses and her belief that the fetus was already suffering led Davis and her then-husband to abort the pregnancy, she said.

“An indescribable blackness followed. 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,” writes Davis about the abortion.

It was not clear how advanced the pregnancy was.

Davis is running against Republican Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott. Her campaign, already an uphill struggle due to Texas’ GOP leanings, has repeatedly stumbled and several local polls show her trailing by double digits.

Abbott is staunchly against abortion rights, which Davis supports, but the Democrat has focused on other issues, including education.

“It’s a wedge issue, but neither campaign has made abortion a top-tier issue,” said Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University.

In a statement released Friday night, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Votes, called Davis “courageous.”

“While no woman should have to justify her decision, abortion later in pregnancy is rare, and is often due to the same sort of tragic and heartbreaking circumstance that Wendy experienced -- the kind of situation where a woman and her doctor need every medical option available,” Richards said.

Davis is not the first elected official to make public the decision to terminate a pregnancy. In 2011, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier of California (D-Hillsborough), talked on the House floor about an abortion she needed in order to to save her life.

Earlier this year, Davis was assailed by critics after the Dallas Morning News published a story that she embellished portions of her personal biography, which centers on her rise from poverty as a single mother.

Davis did not disclose her abortion during the filibuster, although she did call attention to the plight of women in similar circumstances. In the book, she said she considered discussing it but felt it would overshadow her legislative argument.

She previously had disclosed the early loss of another pregnancy that was lodged in a Fallopian tube.

Davis’ book, titled “Forgetting to Be Afraid,” will be released Tuesday. It is dedicated to her two daughters and to the one she lost, whom she and her then-husband named Tate Elise.

Follow @kurtisalee and email kurtis.lee@latimes.com