As this story is being published, more horror stories are surfacing of pregnant women whose life is threatened because of Texas’ cruel abortion laws. In one case a young woman’s baby had a heartbeat but no head. She had been sick for weeks and doctors told her she needed an abortion right away. But Texas requires women to carry pregnancies even when the fetus has no chance of survival. The woman said, “It felt like my life didn’t matter, like I could just die and it would all be for nothing.” Fifteen women whose lives have been endangered by these laws are now suing the state of Texas.
The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 left all states free to regulate abortion. Texas’ abortion laws are some of the most restrictive in the country. Both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association oppose some of Texas’ abortion laws because their excessive restrictions jeopardize patients’ health.
In Texas, abortion, including medication abortion, is NOW banned at all stages of pregnancy from the moment of conception—without exceptions for rape or incest, and with ambiguous exemptions for pregnant people at risk of death.
Dr. Shanna Combs, a Fort Worth-based obstetrician-gynecologist of 15 years, said she contemplated leaving Texas after the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, but ultimately decided against it. “Women need care in the state of Texas. And I want to take care of them and be able to be there for them,” said Dr. Combs, the president-elect at the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Dr. Emily Briggs, president of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, said she believes the abortion restrictions are worsening the healthcare worker shortage in the state. “We have many physicians who feel uncomfortable providing the care that they have been providing for years, sometimes decades, and some of them have decided to leave, and many of them are contemplating leaving.” Dr. Briggs told Spectrum News. “We also have plenty of nurses who have left the field as well. And we already have a shortage in Texas.”
Texas Abortion Laws
In 2021, the Texas state legislature passed Senate Bill 8, ‘a bounty hunter’s’ law that allows anyone to file civil lawsuits against any Texan who ‘aids and abets’ someone seeking abortion within the state, including family members helping to pay for an abortion or someone handing someone an abortion pill. (However, assisting someone to access out-of-state abortion care would not violate these laws.) The suing person could be a relative, an abusive partner, or even a stranger. If their suit is successful, they can receive ‘damages” of at least $10,000.
House Bill 1280, a so-called “Trigger Ban,” effective as of August 25, 2022, creates harsh criminal penalties for providers and doctors for performing or aiding abortions at all stages of pregnancy, without exception for rape or incest. The supporters of the law say that the language covering exceptions in the case of a life-threatening emergency is adequate. However, doctors and hospitals are fearful of intervening when serious medical problems arise, because performing an abortion under the vague language of the law could be considered a felony punishable by up to life in prison. The statute also says that the attorney general “shall” seek a civil penalty of not less than $100,000, plus attorney’s fees. Dr. Combs said, “Just being reported and possibly convicted of a felony, but long term, that means that you will never practice medicine again, so it’s definitely a fear factor that kind of sits in the back of our minds a lot.”
The Texas District and County Attorneys Association has concerns. In fact, the district attorneys in five large left-leaning Texas counties have said they won’t bring criminal charges in these cases, and several of the major cities in those counties are considering prohibiting the use of local funds to investigate or prosecute abortion-related crimes (or pursuing ‘election fraud’ cases as well). “We are very focused on holding accountable people who commit acts of violence in our community,” Travis County (Austin, Texas) District Attorney José Garza said. “Pulling resources away from that to focus on this kind of case would be reckless and endanger the safety of our community.”
In response, House Bill 17, designed to allow for the removal of elected district attorneys who adopt or enforce a “policy of categorically refusing to prosecute specific criminal offenses under state law,” has just passed. Now, in an attack on the rights of elected officials, the state can take away the discretion of elected officials. A big fight around this is likely.
These bills are part of a broad effort on the part of state leaders to attack women’s healthcare and reproductive rights. And they are not going to stop there. Democracy for all is on the chopping block. We are inching our way toward dictatorship. At the same time, people from all walks of life are joining the fight for women’s rights, for democracy itself. We all need to be involved in this fight.
Karel Riley works with the People’s Tribune, and its bilingual sister publication, Tribuno del Pueblo, as a writer and contributor on human rights and women’s issues. “I’ve been a feminist since early adulthood. As a clerical worker, I joined a union drive with AFSCME seeking comparable wages to men for female-dominated jobs, and we were partially successful. In the mid-80’s our union participated in the historic Hormel strike in Minnesota. Later, I joined others in support of a local welfare rights organization,” she says.
