Fifteen women who were denied an abortion even though their lives or those of their fetuses were in danger are at the center of the lawsuit filed last March against the state of Texas. Some of them offered their testimony Wednesday, in a hearing full of emotional stories at the state Capitol in Austin, in which they asked for clarity on what the exceptions to the ban are.
Why are they historic? Because it is the first time that women who presented complications and needed abortion services have taken legal action against restrictions on access to abortion – approved not only in Texas but in at least 16 states in the country – since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade a year ago and eliminated the constitutional protection of abortion approved in 1973.
The plaintiffs, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, are not trying to get the state to repeal their restrictive law: they are asking for clarification in which cases there may be exceptions when pregnancies are complicated by health reasons. At least five of them are expected to testify during the two-day hearings that began Wednesday.
Plaintiffs Amanda Zurawski, Lauren Hall, Lauren Miller, the president & CEO of the Nancy Northup Center for Reproductive Rights, last March when the lawsuit was filed. Rick Kern / Getty Images
One of them is Lauren Miller, 35, who needed a selective abortion in Texas to save her life and that of one of the twins she was carrying in her womb: at 12 weeks they saw spots on the brain of one of the fetuses, which meant that she would not survive. According to her, the doctors themselves explained to her that this was not a possibility due to the state's anti-abortion laws.
So Miller decided to travel to Colorado, where he underwent the procedure he needed to guarantee his life and that of his other son: he needed to pay for a ticket, a hotel near the clinic and ask his parents to take care of his young son.
"What would have happened if I hadn't left Texas?" he was asked at the hearing. Between tears, he answered: "I would have had to see how she deteriorated, I would have had to see her born without a skull, and sign her death certificate. It would have been a dreadful experience. But I was able to give birth to my healthy son and see my son happy with his sister. I was very excited to have twins and now my son is a twin without a twin."
"Our daughter was going to die before or after she was born"
Another plaintiff who shared her testimony Wednesday was Samantha Casiano, a Latino woman who is already a mother of five and has "lived her whole life" in Texas.
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Because of abortion restrictions, Casiano says she was forced to carry a pregnancy to term despite having a fatal fetal abnormality called anencephaly, so the fetus would not develop part of its brain. "They told me, 'Your daughter is incompatible with life.' We knew he was going to die before or after he was born," he said Wednesday at the hearing in Austin. "People on the street still asked me if I could touch my belly, or give me gifts," she recalled in court.
"I was told I had options because of the anti-abortion laws in Texas. It was a high-risk pregnancy and that meant anything could happen. I felt abandoned, I didn't know how to deal with this situation. Then they gave me the information of a funeral home: there I understood that I was going to die inside me or as soon as I came out of the womb."
Not allowed an early termination, the standard recommendation of obstetricians and specialists, Casiano carried her daughter Halo in the womb until she was born at 33 weeks. He died four hours later: "I will never forget my daughter gasping for air, she literally fought the time she was here and that's something no mother, no father should ever have to go through. By law, we had to watch our daughter suffer," Casiano told Noticias Telemundo when sharing her story in April.
She was denied an abortion and went into septic shock
The lead plaintiff, Amanda Zurawski, had not testified as of Wednesday but said she was told her son would not survive and still could not offer her an abortion. It wasn't until she went into septic shock and nearly died that she received an emergency abortion and gave birth to her stillborn daughter. The infection caused permanent damage to one of his fallopian tubes.
Amanda Zurawski on July 19 on her way to court in Austin, Texas: She is the lead plaintiff in the case Zurawski v. the State of Texas, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights.SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP via Getty Images
"I wasn't allowed to have an abortion and the trauma and PTSD and depression that I've had to deal with in the eight months since this happened to me is crippling. I'm still struggling to have kids," she testified before Congress a few months ago.
Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said, "The experiences of these women clearly demonstrate that the state's abortion bans are a danger to the health, fertility, and lives of patients facing serious complications in their pregnancies. The organization is asking the court to block specific parts of the law "to prevent further and irreparable harm to more Texans."
Another of the plaintiffs is gynecologist Austin Dennard: "When these laws went into effect, they not only violated the autonomy I felt I had with my training, but they put my own life in danger, as well as those of my patients. I've had to completely change the way I talk to my abortion patients. It's hard to even say the word, because you feel like you're going to get in trouble," he said in an interview with ABC News.
In her case, being a doctor, she knew perfectly what happened when she saw the monitor. "I knew there was something wrong with his brain. It was surreal that I had to leave the state for an abortion." In this case the fetus was also diagnosed with anencephaly: "I knew immediately that I did not want to continue with that pregnancy, although I had never considered an abortion (...) As soon as I was diagnosed, I started seeking out-of-state abortion care." She is currently pregnant again.
Another plaintiff: Dr. Austin Dennard at her home in Dallas, Thursday, May 18, 2023. LM Otero / AP
Most adults in the country want it to be legal
The most recent analyses, such as this one from KFF, indicate that 16 states, including Texas, do not allow abortions when a fetal abnormality is detected, while six do not provide exceptions to the law when the health of the mother is in danger.
This Texas lawsuit comes at a time when abortion restrictions in the United States continue to face challenges. On Monday, an Iowa judge temporarily blocked newly passed state legislation banning abortions starting in the sixth week, when many women don't even know if they're pregnant.
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Most U.S. adults, including those living in states that limit abortion, want the procedure to be legal at least during the early stages of pregnancy, according to a recent poll released by the AP and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.