Davis joins the Planned Parenthood Texas Votes organization as a senior advisor alongside new co-executive directors Shellie Hayes McMahon and Drucilla Tigner.
“I am thrilled to join this talented team! We have a great deal of work ahead,” Davis said on Twitter. “But I know that, with each of you working alongside us, we can meet the challenge of making sure that Texans get the sexual and reproductive healthcare they need!”
After the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Texas’ “trigger ban” became effective and banned all abortions in the state except in cases of threats to the life or bodily well-being of the mother.
State Republicans had already passed the Texas Heartbeat Act, a novel ban that placed enforcement in the hands of private citizens with a civil cause of action that allows anyone to sue individuals involved in an abortion, except for the mother.
In the aftermath of the court’s ruling, abortions in Texas fell 97 percent after the new state laws took effect.
Since that ruling, pro-choice groups have found themselves back on the offensive after 50 years of playing defense in the political arena.
Planned Parent Texas Votes states its purpose is to “fight for our rights” and that it “is committed to building a movement that moves us beyond Roe to create a Texas where everyone has the right and ability to decide their own futures.”
Davis first rocketed to fame in 2013 when she filibustered an abortion restriction bill that would have banned them after 20 weeks gestation. That sparked her 2014 run, which ended in a sound defeat against then-Attorney General Greg Abbott — who in 2021 signed into law the Heartbeat Act and “trigger ban.”
In 2020, Davis ran a well-funded and highly anticipated challenge against Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX-21), which she also lost by a sizable margin.
Davis sued the State of Texas over the Heartbeat Act last year, but the challenge was tossed this month by a federal judge.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.