The Wire creator David Simon pulls HBO series from Texas over abortion laws

David Simon, the creator of The Wire, has announced to pull out of an upcoming HBO project in Texas owing to the new controversial abortion law.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "As an employer, this is beyond politics. 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?"

His tweet sparked a protest from the Dallas Film & Creative Industries Office saying that state laws should not intermix with the entertainment industry.

"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," it wrote.

This prompted Simon to fire back and clear his position as he replied: "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."

While the name of Simon’s project is not known it is pertinent to mention that he is currently working on a limited series about Baltimore Police corruption – We Own This City, based on the book A True Story Of Crime, Cops And Corruption.