Texas Women Denied Abortions Testify About Impact of State Bans

AUSTIN, Texas—For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women provided hours of testimony in front of a judge about the emotional and physical impact of being denied an abortion because of a state ban.

Three women, part of a group challenging abortion restrictions in Texas, took the witness stand in Austin and recounted stories of suffering harrowing complications during wanted pregnancies and being told by physicians their options were limited by the state’s criminal and civil abortion bans. The women said they were forced to wait until their conditions deteriorated, travel out of state, or carry nonviable fetuses to term. 

Amanda Zurawski testified that she suffered a premature rupture of membranes that meant her unborn daughter wouldn’t survive but doctors told her they wouldn’t be able to terminate the pregnancy unless the heartbeat stopped or Zurawski showed signs of acute infection. 

“Several times I just had to listen to her heartbeat, while simultaneously wanting to hear it and not wanting to hear it at the same time,” Zurawski said. She said she ultimately went into septic shock and spent three days in intensive care. 

Battles are being fought in state courts around the U.S. over the future of abortion access, but in most cases court hearings have focused on arguments about the textual interpretation and historical context of state constitutions, not extensive real-world testimony. 

Most of the 15 plaintiffs in the Texas case are women who have been denied the procedure, allowing abortion-rights advocates to put the women’s experiences on display. Wednesday’s witnesses frequently broke down in tears, and one vomited while testifying. 

The plaintiffs argue that inconsistent and nonmedical language in Texas’ abortion statutes has created confusion for physicians about when abortions are permitted in medical emergencies, putting women’s life and liberty at risk in violation of the state’s constitution. They are asking state District Judge Jessica Mangrum to immediately block enforcement of the law in such situations and are ultimately looking to the courts to create a standard under which doctors can use their medical judgment to determine whether a patient’s life or health is at risk if an abortion isn’t performed.

The case represents a targeted legal strategy for abortion-rights advocates, one that might help them carve out incremental victories in conservative states where courts are unlikely to strike down abortion bans entirely. Even if the Texas lawsuit is successful, women generally won’t be able to seek abortions for unwanted pregnancies and the procedure would become more accessible only in cases where pregnant patients suffer rare complications. 

Abortion-rights supporters have some record of success on this issue even in conservative states, such as North Dakota and Oklahoma, which have recognized a narrow right to abortion in their state constitutions in medical emergencies. 

Texas has responded to the suit saying that any delays in medical care the women experienced were the result of decisions by individual doctors, not state officials. No provider has been prosecuted for providing an abortion in a medical emergency in Texas, state attorneys said Wednesday. 

They said the lawsuit is essentially a public-relations campaign for supporters of abortion rights. “The plaintiffs simply do not like Texas’ restrictions on abortion,” state attorney Amy Pletscher told the judge. 

Two women testified about experiences of having fetuses with severe health problems that were unlikely to survive past birth. 

Ashley Brandt, who was pregnant with twins and learned that one of them had a condition in which the skull doesn’t fuse properly, traveled to Colorado to abort the nonviable fetus. She said that when she returned to Texas she experienced bloody discharge and was afraid to go to the emergency room because she had obtained a procedure that she was told was illegal in Texas. 

Another, Samantha Casiano, said she was unable to travel out of state for an abortion when she learned her unborn daughter had a condition in which she wouldn’t develop parts of the skull and brain. Casiano said she was afraid to travel out of state because she was worried that she or anyone who helped her could be prosecuted or fined under Texas’ abortion laws. 

She carried to term a daughter she named Halo, who was born gasping for air and died within hours. 

“I just kept telling myself and my baby that, ‘I’m so sorry that this had to happen to you,’” she said. “There was no mercy there for her.” 

On cross-examination, Pletscher suggested the women’s conditions might have qualified under Texas’ existing emergency medical exception. She asked whether any representative of the state had denied them an abortion, to which they all responded that they had only spoken with their medical providers about it.

Write to Laura Kusisto at [email protected] and Adolfo Flores at [email protected]