The Wire and The Deuce creator David Simon has defended his choice to pull filming of his new series from Texas due to the state’s newly passed abortion law.
The TV boss took to Twitter on Monday to reveal his decision to stop plans for production of his upcoming HBO series, stating that the call goes ‘beyond politics’.
‘If an employer, this is beyond politics,’ he 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?’
In a response to Simon’s tweet that same day, the Dallas Film & Creative Industries Office, formerly known as the Dallas Film Commission wrote: ‘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.
‘We need talent/crew/creatives to stay & vote, not get driven out by inability to make a living.’
Simon responded to the commission’s tweet as he stated: ‘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 […] 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.’
Simon’s new project hadn’t been formally announced before he made his statement on Twiyyrt, so it’s likely still at the very early stages of development.
The TV star is currently working on an additional limited series about corruption in the Boston Police System titled, We Own This City.
One critic wrote: ‘I will be boycotting HBO and any other broadcast that feels they have to boycott any state that passes laws that protects all human rights, not just women, but babies as well. I guess David Simon believes in murdering children. And that human life isn’t important to him.’
David responded: ‘I believe in a woman’s right to abort an embryo or fetus should that be her personal choice. For killing kids, I have to first insist that children be in season and that proper game and fish licenses are obtained. Now f**k right off with your shitposting rhetoric, Daddy.’
At the start of September, a law came into effect in the state of Texas banning abortion from as a early as six weeks into pregnancy – a point when many women do not know they are pregnant – and gives any individual the right to sue doctors who perform an abortion past this point.
The law took effect after the US Supreme Court did not respond to an emergency appeal by abortion providers, and is one of the most restrictive in America.
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