Wendy Davis tells Maddow: My family 'would give anything' for abortion story not to be true

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) subtly rejected allegations that she fabricated the account of her two medically-induced abortions she revealed in her new memoir in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Tuesday.

"If you don't want to respond to that, you have every right to just not," Maddow said. "But, do you care to respond?"

"My family would give anything for this not to be a true story in our lives," Davis responded. "We would give anything for that."

Davis, the Democratic Party's candidate in her state's gubernatorial election, wrote in her book that she ended two pregnancies for medical reasons; the first pregnancy was diagnosed as ectopic after the egg implanted outside of her uterus. In 1997, she said, a second unborn child developed a brain complication that made it "tremble violently."

On Monday, the conservative National Review called the stories "convenient" and called on her to release proof of the procedures.

"Maybe she had the abortion, maybe she didn't," the Review wrote. "Maybe her reasons were as compelling as she claims. But the reasons Davis gives for having had her abortions are unproven and statistically unlikely."

But as Media Matters reported, data shows that most health complications that endanger both a pregnant woman and her fetus are not discovered until the 20th week of a pregnancy or later -- the types of abortions prohibited by House Bill 2, which prompted Davis' 13-hour filibuster last year.

On Tuesday, Davis told Maddow that she did not discuss the abortions during the filibuster because she did not feel it was the right time.

"I didn't want to make that day be about me," Davis said. "I wanted it to be about the thousands of women and their spouses or partners who supported them who had wanted so desperately for their voices to be heard."

KDFW reported that a Rasmussen poll released last month showed Davis trailing Republican candidate and state Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) by 8 percentage points, marking Abbott's smallest lead since the campaign began.

Watch Maddow's interview with Davis, as aired on MSNBC, below.