In October 2021, shortly after Texas passed the SB 8 abortion law Kaitlyn Kash, 37, of Austin was 13 weeks into her second pregnancy when she was told by her doctor that the fetus had a rare genetic disorder affecting bone and cartilage growth. “We were told that his bones would break in utero and he would suffocate at birth,” Kash said in an interview. “We were expecting our doctor to tell us how we were going to care for our baby, how we were going to end his pain.” Instead “We were told that we should get a second opinion, but make sure that it was outside of Texas”.
In August 2022 Amanda Zurawski of Austin was carrying her first child, she and her husband were thrilled until there were complications then they learned that although there was no chance the child would survive and it was likely she would suffer an infection she would have to carry the fetus until she either expelled it on her own or she became so sick it threatened her life. Afraid to travel out of state to get an abortion since her water could break at any time and she might not be able to get to a doctor in time she stayed in Texas. When she began running a temperature of 105 and couldn't stop shivering in the summer heat her husbad took her to the hospital but they still didn't perform an abortion until much later and by that time the sepsis infection had damaged her reproductive system so badly that she may never be able to give birth.
According to a investigation by the New Yorker magazine Yeniifer Alvarez of Luling, Texas who died in 2022 would likely be alive today as all indications are that SB8 tied the hands of the doctors caring for her until it was too late to save her. Kate Cox, Kristen Anaya, and Elizabeth Weller along with many other women have also suffered and continue to suffer life threatening health emergencies under Texas’ draconian abortion ban.
Of course all those horror stories are anecdotes, they’re just here to give you a taste of what the statistics from Centers for Disease Control mean in the lives of Texas women. CDC data for 2019 to 2022 show that Texas has experienced a 56% increase in maternal mortality during that time and it’s pretty clear that the cause of that is the Republican passed SB8. Nationwide maternal mortality has only increased 11% and without states like Texas and much of the south where similar abortion bans are in place there would have been decrease nationally.
Dr. Donna Campbell, representing Senate District 25 in the Texas Senate is an emergency room physician. She is one of the Republicans who pushed SB8 through the state legislature. She had plenty of opportunity to address the problems with the bill both before it was originally passed and then in the following session 2 years later. She failed her constituents and all Texas women twice. Current law says that an abortion isn’t legal once a fetal heart beat is recognized, about 6 weeks after conception. What it fails to include is that when there is no longer a heart beat the prohibition is removed. The current language means that Texas women have to carry around a rotting carcass in their uterus until they are sick enough for a doctor to risk their license to practice medicine and prison time.
Starting October 21 you can retire Donna Campbell by electing Merrie Fox for Texas Senate.
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