"The Wire" creator David Simon has chosen to cease filming his upcoming HBO series in Texas due to the controversial abortion law passed recently in the state.
In a tweet, Simon explained that he could not allow the women involved in the project to "forego their civil liberties."
"As an employer, this is beyond politics," Simon wrote. "I'm turning in scripts next month on an HBO non-fiction miniseries based on events in Texas, but I can't and won't ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there. What else looks like Dallas/Ft. Worth?"
Shortly after his initial tweet, the Dallas Film & Creative Industries Office replied, stating that his decision was harming the state.
"Laws of a state are not reflective of its entire population. Not bringing a production to Dallas (a big "D") only serves to further disenfranchise those that live here," it tweeted. "We need talent/crew/creatives to stay & vote, not get driven out by inability to make a living."
Responding to the organization, Simon stated that his choice was being misunderstood.
"You misunderstand completely. My response is NOT rooted in any debate about political efficacy or the utility of any boycott. My singular responsibility is to securing and maintaining the civil liberties of all those we employ during the course of a production," he wrote. "If even one of our employees requires full control of her own body and choices — and if a law denies this or further criminalizes our attempt to help her exercise that control, we should have filmed elsewhere."
The Texas law bans abortions after six weeks, which is before many women realize they are pregnant. Actress Uma Thurman also spoke out against the ban in an op-ed for The Washington Post that detailed an abortion she had as a teenager.
"The abortion I had as a teenager was the hardest decision of my life, one that caused me anguish then and that saddens me even now, but it was the path to the life full of joy and love that I have experienced," the mom of three wrote. "Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be."
Thurman went on to call the Texas abortion ban "another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners."
"I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on these disadvantaged women, denying them the choice not to have children they are not equipped to care for, or extinguishing their hopes for the future family they might choose," she added.
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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