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The Texas Supreme Court hears oral arguments for Zurawski v. State of Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (Mikala Compton\/Austin American-Statesman via AP)<\/p>\n
Mikala Compton\/ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n
To mark the four-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, dozens of Texans affected by the state\u2019s abortion policies<\/a> traveled to Capitol Hill to share their stories with federal lawmakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n They were among more than 150 patients, advocates and health care providers from 35 states who met this week with staff across more than 60 offices. Some also participated in a spotlight forum<\/a> and press events with Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n The campaign, called \u201cAbortion Stories on the Hill,\u201d was organized by Free & Just, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for abortion access and reproductive health care. It formed in the wake of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, the 2022 ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The group from Texas included several patients from North Texas, some of whom have challenged Texas\u2019 restrictive abortion laws in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2022, Ashley Brandt traveled from Houston to Colorado in 2022 for a fetal reduction after learning that one of the twins she was carrying would not survive. Brandt, who now lives in Frisco, joined a lawsuit<\/a> with nearly two dozen plaintiffs seeking medical exceptions to Texas\u2019 abortion laws, which have no exceptions for rape, incest or severe fetal anomalies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2023, Kate Cox unsuccessfully tried to obtain an emergency exception<\/a> after her baby was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a lethal genetic condition. She left Texas to terminate her pregnancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview, Brandt\u2019s husband, Marcus, called the ultimate goal of his advocacy \u201clofty\u201d \u2014 the codification of the right to abortion into federal law. Short of that, his wife said, federal lawmakers can reassess the source of their political donations and speak out. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to show them that it\u2019s deeply, intimately affecting our lives,\u201d Marcus Brandt said. \u201cThe government is overreaching into our most intimate moments. How can we, as Texans \u2014 and Americans at large, but especially as Texans \u2014 accept that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With the passage of the Dobbs milestone, leaders with Texas groups opposing abortion said their organizations were thankful for that court decision. But they are making their own asks of the federal government. They continue to advocate for policies that would prevent abortion pills from being mailed into Texas and oppose shield laws in other states that protect medical providers that provide abortion care to Texans. \u00a0<\/p>\n Amy O\u2019Donnell, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, said her organization is advocating for the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate the requirement that patients meet in person with a physician before being prescribed abortion medications. It is also calling for enforcement of the Comstock Act, a law from 1873 that criminalizes the mailing of abortion-inducing materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not content with the leadership we see in D.C.,\u201d said John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not content with the current state of blue states trying to sabotage the enforcement of safety and health regulations that have been passed in states like Texas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the four years since the Dobbs decision, the standard of medical care available to pregnant Texans has diminished, an award-winning investigation<\/a> published last year by The Dallas Morning News found. Based on more than 100 interviews, including with dozens of Texas physicians who had practiced under the laws<\/a>, the series illuminated how medical decision making had been subsumed by fear<\/a> and the threat of legal liability, rather than the best interest of patients. The reporting told the stories of patients who carried nonviable pregnancies<\/a>, endured stillbirths<\/a> and died after being unable to access timely abortion care<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Among them was Porsha Ngumezi, a mother of two who died in a Houston-area hospital after bleeding profusely from a miscarriage<\/a>. Her husband, Hope Ngumezi, also participated in Wednesday\u2019s event in D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite amendments to state law by Texas legislators that were supported by the state\u2019s anti-abortion advocates, patients who experience complications in their pregnancies say they continue to struggle to access care. Those who receive severe or lethal fetal diagnoses still have no recourse under the law<\/a>; they must either continue their pregnancies or leave Texas to terminate for medical reasons. Anti-abortion groups oppose adding catastrophic fetal diagnoses as an exception to the state\u2019s abortion bans; instead, they advocate for palliative care.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this week, a Texas woman filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Texas Medical Board and the Texas Board of Nursing alleging that two Round Rock hospitals provided insufficient care<\/a> when she was miscarrying in October. In her federal complaint, Lynn Callaway said she visited three emergency rooms and made numerous calls to her OB-GYN before receiving misoprostol, a pill that is used for medical abortions and to aid the completion of a miscarriage. She developed an infection and, months later, when she began to heavily bleed again, was found to have retained tissue from the pregnancy, the complaint said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Callaway\u2019s case unfolded after enactment of the 2025 Life of the Mother Act, a law that clarified when Texas medical providers can intervene to provide medically necessary care, including during pregnancy losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell said state law has long made the distinction between medical care for miscarriages and abortions. There is \u201cno reason,\u201d she said, that Texas doctors cannot provide patients like Callaway with the standard of care.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Seago said Callaway\u2019s case is indicative of the ongoing implementation of the Life of the Mother Act, which includes continuing education requirements for Texas physicians and attorneys on the state\u2019s abortion laws. Failing to provide care that is legal, he said, is no different from any other type of medical malpractice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat education effort for doctors is still being rolled out, and that\u2019s critical,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause when you look at these stories, they\u2019re completely misrepresenting the law, they\u2019re not following the law, and doctors need to be held accountable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For some Texas women, stories such as Callaway\u2019s have instilled a fear of becoming pregnant in Texas<\/a>. Women who have become pregnant again after being affected by Texas\u2019 abortion bans have said they felt stress, fear and anxiety<\/a> during those pregnancies. A study of more than 4,300 Texas mothers<\/a> published last week by medical researchers also identified an increase in reports of fair or poor mental health following the 2021 implementation of the Texas Heartbeat Act, which banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. A growing body of medical literature has identified other negative health outcomes<\/a> for Texas mothers and babies under the state\u2019s abortion bans.\u00a0<\/p>\n That law directly impacted the medical care of Brandt, who in mid-2022 learned that one of the identical twin girls she was carrying had acrania, where some or all of a fetus\u2019 skull is missing. If the pregnancy continued without intervention, Brandt was at greater risk of premature labor, placental abruption, hemorrhage and infection.\u00a0The baby would die soon after birth even if she made it to term.<\/p>\n The other twin, who was unaffected and healthy, had an expected survival rate of at least 97% so long as a fetal reduction was performed before 16 weeks of gestation. In such cases, the dead fetus is reabsorbed, allowing the pregnancy to continue normally.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Brandt\u2019s doctors told her that the 15-minute procedure could no longer be performed in Texas due to state law. Instead, they frantically did their own research to identify an out-of-state provider and arranged for family members to care for their son while they traveled. One of the doctors who treated Brandt in Colorado was also from Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Brandts moved to Frisco six weeks after their daughter was born. The couple previously had always intended to have three children. After their experiences with Texas law, they decided they would no longer have any more children. Later, when Brandt joined the lawsuit challenging Texas\u2019 abortion laws, attorneys representing the state told her that her choice to stop having children precluded her from having standing in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s ruining the medical culture in Texas,\u201d Brandt said. \u201cYou are pregnant, you experience a complication, and you go from being a patient to a legal liability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n