Doctors say abortion restrictions have left many Texas women terrified that pregnancy complications could become life-threatening. Demonstrators rally against antiabortion and voter suppression laws at the Texas Capitol on Oct. 2, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (Montinique Monroe \/ Getty Images) <\/p>\n
This story<\/a> originally appeared on Courier Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to die, please don\u2019t let me die.\u201d<\/p>\n That is a plea that no doctor in Texas ever wants to hear from their pregnant patient.<\/p>\n But Dr. Todd Ivey, a Houston-based OB-GYN, says it\u2019s a situation he\u2019s encountered more and more now that women are living under a strict\u00a0abortion ban<\/a>\u00a0from the moment of conception.<\/p>\n \u201cOne pregnant patient who was miscarrying looked at me and begged, \u2018I don\u2019t want to die, please don\u2019t let me die,\u2019\u201d Ivey told Courier Texas. \u201cI reassured her, but she was absolutely terrified. She had miscarried too early in her pregnancy for her fetus to survive, and at the time, I wasn\u2019t legally allowed to perform an abortion because her fetus still had a heartbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only after the patient developed a dangerous infection in her uterus that Ivey was finally permitted to terminate her pregnancy and save her life.<\/p>\n The fear of losing their lives is precisely what many pregnant Texas residents say they\u2019ve experienced after four young women died in the state when they were unable to access medically necessary\u00a0abortions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three died<\/a>\u00a0while doctors delayed their care for hours as they miscarried. Another, Tierra Walker<\/a>, was 20 weeks pregnant and suffered from soaring blood pressure that had required multiple hospitalizations, yet was given no option for what would have been a lifesaving abortion by any of\u00a0the 90 doctors<\/a>\u00a0who examined her.<\/p>\n She died in bed of preeclampsia<\/a>, a serious, persistent high blood pressure disorder, and was found by her son on his 14th birthday.<\/p>\n Two of the dead women were also already moms, while another,\u00a0Nevaeh Crain<\/a>, was just 18 and expecting her first baby when she died of an infection while miscarrying. Crain had been sent home by two hospitals in the hours before her death and a third delayed care while they waited to confirm that her fetus had no heartbeat.<\/p>\n She died the day after her baby shower.<\/p>\n Several other women have also gone public with their stories of coming close to death or losing fallopian<\/a>\u00a0tubes and ovaries after being refused treatment for unviable ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages.<\/p>\n Others, like Kate Cox<\/a>\u00a0and Amanda Zurawski<\/a>, have challenged the state\u2019s extreme abortion ban in court\u2014and lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cox was carrying a fetus with a fatal diagnosis and Zurawski spent three days in intensive care while doctors battled to save her life after her water broke far too early and she developed sepsis.<\/p>\n The sepsis scarred her uterus and fallopian tubes so badly that she will never be able to carry a pregnancy again.<\/p>\n Cox initially received a court ruling allowing her doctor to proceed with an abortion, but then-Attorney General and current Republican Senate nominee\u00a0Ken Paxton<\/a>\u00a0obtained an emergency injunction and threatened to charge any doctor or hospital with a felony if they terminated Cox\u2019s pregnancy.<\/p>\n The penalty for medical providers who perform such \u201cillegal\u201d abortions in Texas is 99 years in prison plus the loss of medical licensing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cox fled the state for a termination.<\/p>\n Pregnant Patients Are Afraid\u2014Not Joyous <\/p>\n These deaths and near-deaths have created an atmosphere where \u201c100% of my patients are afraid\u201d of experiencing complications in their pregnancies, said Dallas OB-GYN Dr. Austin Dennard. \u201cIt\u2019s an extra stress to every stage of pregnancy. These laws are stealing the joy out of pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWomen are afraid to get pregnant in Texas. There is a pervasive unease with pregnancy. Women in their 40s with high-risk pregnancies are very afraid. Those pregnancies are fraught with difficulties,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Dennard herself had to\u00a0escape the state<\/a>\u00a0for an abortion when she learned that her much-wanted third baby suffered from a fatal condition called\u00a0anencephaly<\/a>\u00a0and had no chance of surviving after birth.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day patients tell me that they are afraid to get pregnant in Texas,\u201d said Dr. Damla Karsan, an OB-GYN in Houston. \u201cThey say that they\u2019d love to have another baby or \u2018I\u2019d love to start my family, but I just don\u2019t know in the current climate if that\u2019s wise, if that\u2019s safe.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Houston family physician Dr. Bhavik Kumar said many of his patients have simply decided not to get pregnant.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe fear is around, \u2018What would I do if I were to become pregnant, where would I go, and who would I talk to?\u2019 The idea of having to take time off work and having to leave the state if they ran into complications,\u201d he said. \u201cSo their preference would be to not become pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n Family physician Dr. Lou Rubino, a former lead doctor at Austin Women\u2019s Health Center, told\u00a0Courier Texas that she personally chose to avoid getting pregnant in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no way I wanted to be pregnant in that state. No way, because if anything happened and I got sick and wanted the pregnancy to stop, it\u2019s not an option. You either have to get out of the state or you\u2019re going to die. That\u2019s where we\u2019re at, so why would you want to be pregnant?\u201d<\/p>\n Rubino ultimately decided that she could not practice evidence-based obstetrics and gynecology in Texas and she left to become the medical director of an\u00a0abortion and reproductive health clinic in Virginia<\/a>.<\/p>\n A New Law Hasn\u2019t Made It Safer to Be Pregnant <\/p>\n A law passed in 2025,\u00a0\u201cThe Life of the Mother Act\u201d<\/a>, was written to allow doctors to provide medically necessary abortions to women before they were close to death. But the legislation has not improved outcomes, according to\u00a0multiple physicians<\/a>\u00a0interviewed by Courier Texas.<\/p>\n Dr. Nancy Binford, an OB-GYN in Austin, now sees women in their 20s so afraid to get pregnant that they request tubal ligations. The tubal ligation procedure, often referred to as \u201cgetting tubes tied,\u201d offers permanent protection from pregnancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want to get pregnant in this world,\u201d Binford said.<\/p>\n Statistics validate patients\u2019 concerns. Maternal mortality has risen by 56 percent in Texas since the state\u2019s first abortion ban in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen my pregnant patients ask how they can best protect themselves from being one of those statistics, I tell them that I won\u2019t abandon them, that I will do everything I can to protect their health and safety,\u201d Dr. Karsan said.<\/p>\n But reassurances can only go so far.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen are dying. This is not the state in which you want to live and have a pregnancy,\u201d said Yvonne Gutierrez, executive director of the organization\u00a0Reproductive Freedom for All<\/a>, who is a fifth-generation Texan but currently lives outside the state.<\/p>\n \u201cA former colleague of mine who\u2019s pregnant said she won\u2019t even take a flight that connects in the state of Texas because she\u2019s worried that if something happened to her, she\u2019d be in a state where she isn\u2019t protected.\u201d<\/p>\n Gutierrez fears for her many cousins of reproductive age still living in Texas. \u201cMy entire family is in Texas, and I think constantly about what these abortion bans mean for the people I love.\u201d<\/p>\n She also knows other Texas women who are living outside the state but \u201cwould choose to move closer to family when they decide to have kids. Unfortunately, my friends, who are fellow Texans, don\u2019t feel like they have that option.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Dr. Rubino\u2019s patients chose to pursue an early-stage abortion before traveling to Texas.<\/p>\n She already had children and needed to be there for them. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t willing to take the risk that something would happen to her while she was there and she might die. She decided that the safest thing for her to do was to have an abortion in preparation for travel to Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n Amanda Zurawski<\/a>\u00a0said that her husband, Josh, has told friends who are planning to start families that, along with plans for where they will deliver and which music will be on their delivery playlist, they also need a plan for how to leave the state if serious pregnancy complications arise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, told Courier Texas that \u201cas a Texan and a mother, it is devastating to watch politicians turn pregnancy into something people fear\u2026every day I think about Texans who now have to question whether it is safe to become pregnant where they live and love.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPoliticians should not have more power over someone\u2019s pregnancy than their doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n Look to these trusted groups if you or a loved one needs to know more about reliable abortion care:<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n A note from\u00a0Ms. editors:\u00a0We want to hear from you for\u00a0The Majority<\/a>, a new campaign collecting stories about how reproductive freedom has enabled readers to build the lives they want and need. Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support reproductive healthcare access. Yet public debate overlooks the lives shaped by abortion access, contraception, IVF, miscarriage care, maternal healthcare or comprehensive sex education\u2014countless women who chose to pursue an education, have children, not have children, protect their health and chart their own future.\u00a0Add your voice and complete the sentence: \u201cAccess to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to\u2026.\u201d\u00a0Together, these stories will help show not only why reproductive freedom remains a majority value, but also what it makes possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n The reporting you just read is possible because of readers like you. Since 1972, Ms. has delivered independent, feminist journalism that tells the stories too often overlooked by other news media, challenges systems of inequality and holds power to account. We have no corporate owners, no advertisers and no billionaires dictating what we cover. Instead, we answer to our readers and our mission. If you value reporting that centers women and girls\u2014and covers the issues others leave out\u2014please support Ms. today by making a tax-deductible donation, becoming a member to receive a magazine subscription, or gifting a membership to a friend. Together, we can continue reporting, rebelling and truth-telling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors say abortion restrictions have left many Texas women terrified that pregnancy complications could become life-threatening. Demonstrators rally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[51754,132,134,133,132596,631,76174,27,132597],"class_list":["post-374785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-abortion-access","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-courier-news","tag-death","tag-sexual-and-reproductive-health","tag-texas","tag-zurawski-v-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NOW-NYC and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Action Fund organized a rally for reproductive rights at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Sept. 1, 2021, after a Texas law dubbed the \u201cHeartbeat Bill\u201d went into effect. The law ends access to abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and contains an infamous bounty-hunter provision that allows anyone to sue abortion providers and \u201caiders and abetters\u201d in civil court. (Michael M. Santiago \/ Getty Images) <\/p>\n
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