“A confused muddled mess”: A phrase which could be used to describe the unpredictable and unstable Mad Hatter from the long-loved story of Alice in Wonderland, has actually been applied to House District 134’s very own Sarah Davis. Elected in 2010 on her very conservative Tea Party platform, she seems to have become a bit lost since then and is now known as one of the Legislature’s most progressive Republican leaders, straying far from the Republican party’s stated platform. Many are left scratching their heads and wondering, “Who is the real Sarah Davis?” Let’s explore.
In 2013, Davis made a name for herself as being the only Republican to vote against the Pro-Life Omnibus Bill that, among other things, would have placed more stringent health and safety regulations on clinics providing abortions as well as prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks. More recently, in 2015 she repeatedly voted “No” on allowing Pro-Life Legislation to be heard on the House floor and fought against increasing funding for the state’s Alternatives to Abortion program. She proudly wears her “Pro-Choice Republican” badge and received just shy of $13,000 in in-kind donations from Planned Parenthood this November alone.
Davis uses her limited government ideals to support her pro-choice stance in the Legislature. In March of 2015, she stated, “As Republicans we have always believed in personal freedom, individual responsibility, and limited government, and that is embodied in the right to make decisions over your body….” In July of 2013, she is quoted in the Houston Chronicle as saying, “Republicans should be able to disagree about abortion, but we also should be consistent on our position that government should not be practicing medicine.” In another statement she says, “So just as I’m opposed to overregulation of industry, I’m opposed to the Legislature practicing medicine.” Also in 2013, “While the intentions of the author of the bill (HB 2) and its supporters are noble…the unfortunate reality is that the legislation does so in a manner that is most likely unconstitutional and interferes with the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with her physician,” and, “I believe, at its core, the Republican Party stands for personal freedom, which is lost when government controls our lives. I cannot support government dictating to us where and how we obtain health care.” An excerpt from her website in 2014 states, “Sarah believes in two important health care principles: protecting the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship [and] stopping government intrusions into the practice of medicine….”
Wow. Certainly sounds noble, right? How could any conservative argue with such a pro-personal responsibility, pro-individual liberty, anti-government overreach position as this? But wait! Before we applaud her purist and literal approach to the government’s role in healthcare, let’s take a peek through the looking glass into the bills Davis has already filed for the upcoming 85th Legislative Session. HB 97 seeks to remove the need for parental consent for a minor to receive the controversial HPV vaccine. HB 107 wants to increase government efforts to track and report on rates of HPV vaccination in the state. HB 120 removes the phrase “reasons of conscience, including a religious belief” when referring to vaccine exemptions and replaces it with the term “non-medical” — clearly the first step on a very slippery slope leading to the doing away with of all “non-medical” exemptions. Finally, HB 126 would force individuals seeking exemptions to obtain an “education module certificate” before being granted their exemption and also authorizes an extra fee to be charged for this “education module.”
HUH? Let’s put aside (for the moment) the maddening level of unconstitutionality involved in the enforcement of these potential new laws, and instead ask exactly how Rep. Davis reconciles her opposition to the Legislature practicing medicine, her disdain for legislation that interferes with the the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with their physician, her inability to support government dictating where and how we obtain healthcare, or her commitment to protecting the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship and stopping government intrusions into the practice of medicine with her new mission to further muddle up our exemption and informed consent laws. She herself wrote, “Personal freedom and limited government are the foundation of my political philosophy. I believe the proper role of government is to provide only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least.” How do these bills contribute to her supposed foundational belief in limiting the power and reach of government? Her views are also in direct opposition to her own party’s platform on the issue of allowing families to make their own healthcare decisions. Are you as confused as we are, Representative Davis? I wonder if the nearly $190,000 she has received in donations from local and out of state medical groups and pharmaceutical companies from mid 2015 until now (making up 20% of her total donations during this time) might make things a bit less mysterious.
Davis is joining forces with Representative Donna Howard (D), who has also already filed vaccine-related bills of her own (HB 241 and HB 243), in an effort to promote this as a bi-partisan effort. Read that again: A BI-PARTISAN EFFORT. In what fictional world is Sarah Davis a shining representation of the Republican party? Here in the real world, a Rice University study of Texas’ 84th Legislative Session placed Davis dead last in a ranking of Texas House Republican members from most conservative to most democratic. This is not a bi-partisan effort. This is an all out attack on your medical freedom of choice by a bought-and-paid-for-wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing-mad-hatter-wild-card politician.
What do we do?
Great question, Stephanie! Join Texans For Vaccine Choice and then watch your email for action alerts. Find out who your senator and representative are and have their contact info handy so that you can contact them with your concerns about these bills! Last, but certainly not least, SPREAD THE WORD!
https://texansforvaccinechoice.com/join.php
This RINO needs to go! She is bought! Thank you TFVC for showing how over and over her actions don’t match her words.
AGREED!!
I am a Registered Nurse and have been in the health care industry for 30 + years. If you do not want to get your child vaccinated, fine, then here is what should happen: you should receive no governmental monies in form of medicaid, food stamps, WIC, CHIPS, etc. You should not have access to public education to expose other people possibly to what your child may have. Your insurance or the public taxpayer should not be required to pay for your intellectually challenged decision. Mindsets like yours though is partly why I have a job so if you want to bring back diseases like smallpox, whooping cough, diphtheria, mumps (which is already making a comeback-you can guess why), etc, then by all means do not get your child vaccinated.
I have been in healthcare for 23 years and have worked with many patients over the course of my professional career that developed GBS because of the flu vaccine. All medical procedures, including vaccination, have risk. I’d encourage you to actually read the package insert, not the little one page vaccine information sheet, that details potential adverse reactions.
We have not routinely vaccinated for smallpox in the US for at least 40 years. I am not aware of any smallpox outbreaks.
Regarding mumps outbreak: all of the Harvard students were fully vaccinated with 2 doses of MMR; 90% of the students who came down with mumps in Arkansas were fully vaccinated with 2 doses of MMR–actually the onset of the outbreak were in the fully vaccinated.
Hi, Brent 🙂
Perhaps you should direct your anger about the recent mumps outbreaks towards the vaccine manufacturer. Merck falsified efficacy data regarding the mumps portion of the MMR and is currently involved in a whistleblower lawsuit as well as class action lawsuits for violating the False Claims Act. You can read about that here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/pharmalot/2015/06/08/merck-is-accused-of-stonewalling-over-effectiveness-of-mumps-vaccine/
and here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gerganakoleva/2012/06/27/merck-whistleblower-suit-a-boon-to-anti-vaccination-advocates-though-it-stresses-importance-of-vaccines/#7fa79842caf7
and here:
http://ahrp.org/former-merck-scientists-sue-merck-alleging-mmr-vaccine-efficacy-fraud/
This fraud is evidenced by the fact that outbreaks are occurring almost exclusively in the fully vaccinated. Arkansas outbreak = 90-95% of kids who have fallen I’ll were fully vaccinated according to the Arkansas Health Department.
http://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/programsServices/infectiousDisease/CommunicableDisease/Pages/Mumps.aspx
Also, I’m not entirely sure how these outbreaks are job security for you since the mumps is a benign viral infection requiring little more than rest and comfort care at home. The CDC does not even require reporting of mumps cases. You can read more about what the CDC says about mumps here:
https://www.cdc.gov/mumps/outbreaks.html
I would suggest looking into this issue further if you seek to provide the best, most informed care possible to your patients.
Ya MIGHT want to check into the lack of current CDC schedule of the small pox vaccine. Ya MIGHT want to go look at who is getting the mumps (cough cough- the vaccinated) and you MIGHT want to look at how many tax dollars have been spent COMPENSATING vaccine INJURY (hint: over $3 BILLION!) Go home nurse.
From my perspective, it is more like YOU are the reason you have a job.
Brent, I am a registered nurse as well. To truly speak out on vaccinations you need to educate yourself. It’s a problem with health care professionals. You are blindly believing in a failed system. We have traded short term immunity for chronic life long disabilities.
Why, because some people believe in vaccines, why should that affect the public assistance these people are otherwise entitled to (according to the government? I too, am a registered nurse of over 30 years, and I absolutely disagree with you. No one should be forced to get medication they don’t want, especially drugs for which the pharmaceutical companies have no (zero!) liability? Why have they been given immunity from liability for these drugs? Surely they have the capacity to injure, every drug does, and there are serious side effects listed right on the drug insert sheet. So how on earth can we demand that people get these and punish them for refusing? What about those of us who don’t believe in them and don’t receive any government benefits? Can we just withhold our tax dollars?
You’re an RN??? You obviously are in the wrong line of work. Compassionate NOT! A whole lot of nazi in your views. As a nurse you should know that the unvaccinated are NOT spreading diseases they don’t have! Do you think they carry diseases around in their pockets??? As an adult ,even as a nurse, it is highly doubtful that you are vaccinated to the current CDC schedule–making you one of the scary unvaccinated. You must be aware that there are thousands of diseases we don’t have vaccines for–are you carrying ALL of those too???? Do you have a clue now how exactly ridiculous you sound? As a nurse you should also know that many of the vaccines carry live viruses that are being shed by the recently vaccinated. Are you aware of this. Do you know what INFORMED consent is? Have you ever once given it? Teliing someone that vaccines are safe and effective is criminal if you are not sharing the whole truth–that they can cause damage,disease and death! You are the type of RN I would hope to NEVER run into. You KNOW nothing about vaccines! Start reading and researching for yourself—you should do it before you ever give another vaccine!
Hi Brent-
Thanks for stopping by!
Just a few things before others start chiming in here…
As a nurse, I would think you would know that,
1- we haven’t vaccinated for smallpox in this country for several decades now. Pretty sure it’s not coming back due to the unvaccinated, and,
2- the recent mumps cases have been in primarily vaccinated populations. Even the regional health departments are saying that the unvaccinated are not to blame for these outbreaks:
http://kbia.org/post/rise-mumps-cases-has-some-public-health-officials-asking-questions#stream/0
http://hola-arkansas.com/arkansas-leads-nation-in-mumps-outbreak/
All you have to do is read the vaccine insert. May cause encehalitis, death etc.
Isnt that enough to give you pause?
Or $3.5 Billion paid out to vaccine injured people. That is not a rare accident. Its frequent and expected.
Brent should join Nurses Against Mandatory Vaccines which numbers in the tens of thousands.